The Expat
by seastarr08
Summary: A new story in the Expert/Amateur universe. Sookie and Professor Sex face some professional turned personal challenges.
1. Edit

**Hi folks. It's been a year since I first began posting The Expert, my without a doubt favourite Eric/Sookie story to write. To celebrate that, and perhaps to motivate me to get back to work on the original version, I've decided to write a bit of an extension. It'll probably be around 12 chapters, but who the hell knows. I may get sucked in for more. **

**So, timeline refresher is in order, I suppose. Max is seven, Ceci is three. It kind of picks up after the end of the Amateur, or around there. If you're looking to read the Expert, which isn't on FF dot net, it's on my blog, seastarr08 dot wordpress dot com . The rest of the stories and outtakes are on this site.  
**

**I apologize in advance for any errors. I'm my own beta for these stories. **

**Thanks for reading! **

**

* * *

**

**Eric**

Sookie's ass was tight. That body bootcamp thing that Pam had been dragging her to all summer was paying off in spades. It was worth having to give the kids lunch three times a week on my own, when all they wanted to do was go to the beach, if I got to see that ass more. Not that it wasn't great before, but she was much more willing to show it off when she thought it was great too.

I patted it, as she lay on her stomach on the Mickey Mouse towel that Ceci insisted on dragging to the beach every day, despite the growing hole in the left corner. "Your ass looks fantastic."

She rolled over, and smiled up at me, her eyes covered with huge sunglasses. "Yours too. I don't even need to see it to know that."

"Even though I don't go to body bootcamp?" I pulled her giant sunglasses off and kissed her, just as Ceci jumped on my back.

"Dad, I want a drink."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "What's the magic word?"

"Please, and now." She grinned back.

"No more Aunty Pam for you. That's two words." I reached in the cooler and handed her a bottle of water. "We're going home in ten, so go say bye to your friends."

She nodded, and ran off, the bottle of water held tightly in her little hands. Sookie shook her head. "She's lucky she's so cute. It's date night tonight."

Our kids were the ultimate cockblockers. Especially Ceci. At three, it was like she had some sort of sex radar. Her mission was to make sure neither of us ever got laid, and when we did, it was fast. "Is it five, yet?" I continued my blatant ogling, straightening out the straps on her bikini.

She buried her head in the crook of my neck. "You know, if we weren't married, I'd never let you get away with that."

"Good thing I don't have to worry about that." I kissed her forehead, taking in her unique scent, which was usually some combination of this really cheap cocoa butter she liked for tanning and the ocean. "You smell like the beach."

"That's because we're at the beach." She pulled herself up, and dusted the sand off her ass. "What are we doing tonight? It's your turn to plan."

I looked up, thinking about it. "Pizza? Bad movie? Sex under the stars? Do you think Liz would mind if we dropped Ceci off before five?"

"No, but we're not. I want to feed her before I send her over there. That way," she stood on her tiptoes and whispered in my ear, "She'll keep her for lunch."

"Max is back on Tuesday, right?" He was spending a few days upstate with Alcide and his father, who was desperate for man time lately, since Pam had had Gaby. They were fishing or something, at some country estate that his dad owned. He'd called daily and told us how awesome it was. Ceci drove him nuts a lot of the time, so it was nice for him to get a break.

We made it through dinner, and despite Ceci's negotiating tactics, we got her to eat all her veggies before Sookie dropped her off with Liz. We tried to do a weekly date night, even though it sometimes just involved getting the kids to bed on time and falling asleep on the couch lately.

Because of Sookie's new job title, she managed to talk Sam into letting her work from the Hamptons for July and August, arguing that it was a good place to network, and that really, no one was in their offices through the summer anyway. I was proof of that, as were the endless stream of academics that I seemed to run into at the grocery store and at the coffee shop I frequented.

No one was in New York in the summer. It was madness.

I decided to check my email while Sookie dropped Ceci off, and immediately frowned when I saw the first email, with the little red urgent flag checked.

Fucking Appius Occela.

Sometime, maybe a year ago, my department got a new dean, someone I'd heard of for years, but never met. Appius was Italian-born, and a genius, and it had been a real coup for NYU, scooping him from Harvard.

Unfortunately, his ideas of how the department should be ran varied drastically from mine. I was at a spot in my career where I was quite content to publish as much as I needed to to stay relevant, but not work my ass off as I had when I was trying to establish myself. I had the market leading introduction to sexuality text, I'd been invited to participate in several prestigious lecture series, and had been turning down offers from ivy league schools for years. NYU was lucky to have me. I knew it, they knew it, and that's how it was.

Occela, on the other hand, didn't quite share that philosophy. And this email was the icing on the cake. The subject line was "Guest Lecture Opportunity."

_Dear Eric,_

_I hope you are enjoying your summer in the Hamptons. I spent a week recently in Bridgehampton with my partner's family, and it was just lovely. _

_I've decided that we need to raise our department's international profile. In order to do that, you and a few other senior faculty members will be required to take a guest lecturer position at an international institution for at least a semester. I have a few suggestions that I'd like to discuss with you on Tuesday, but feel free to bring your own ideas. This is a really exciting opportunity, and I hope you're as enthusiastic about this as I am. _

_Sincerly,_

_Occela _

No. Maybe when I was thirty, even thirty-five, I would have been up for it. In fact, I probably would have welcome the opportunity to chase foreign pussy for four commitment-free months. However, now, that sounded like a nightmare. I checked the time on the email, which was sent about an hour before and called him. I wasn't waiting until Tuesday.

He answered right away, his voice bubbling with enthusiasm He didn't even wait for a hello. "Eric, I hope you're as excited about this as I am. I've wanted to make this happen since I started, but it took me a while to convince everyone that sending away our most talented professors for a semester was a good long-term plan."

"I can't do that. I have a family here."

He was not deterred. "Take them with you. It'll be a great adventure."

I rolled my eyes. "My wife has a career, and my son is in school. I can't just uproot them for four months on a whim."

He was quiet for a minute. "You're up for chair, if you do this. Three year term. No classes, no students. Nine to five. Time to research. I'll make it happen, if you do this. If not, I'll have to consider someone that is more concerned with the needs of the department."

Motherfucker. I'd been gunning for chair since Max was born. "I have to think about it."

"Think fast. The chair seat is up next May. I have a contact at the Sorbonne that's very open to someone coming for September."

And it was at an incredible school. Of course it was. And I'd have to leave in a month. "Give me a week to think it over."

"I can't really say this, but you know how I'll feel if you say no. I'll be terribly disappointed. Enjoy your summer Eric, and I'll look forward to your answer."

What he really meant was that I'd be teaching the sexuality night course until ten three nights a week for the rest of my teaching career if I said no. I fucking hated that course. "Great. Bye."

I sat on the couch for a minute, thinking about how this could possibly work. Maybe Sookie could take a leave from work, and we could all go, have a little adventure. Then I'd be able to be home every day after school, not have to do marking on holidays, hell, I wouldn't have to see a student for weeks if I didn't want to.

When Sookie got home about twenty minutes later, I realized that something was very wrong. She slumped down on the couch beside me, her brow furrowed. "Sam had a heart attack. A really bad one. I just got a call from the president of the company. They want me to cover for him until he's back on his feet."

"Oh, I'm sorry, baby." I kissed her forehead. Her and Sam were close. Sam was only a year older than me. Shit. "Is he going to be okay?"

She nodded. "They think so. But I don't know how long he'll be off work for. He needed a bypass of some sort."

"Any idea of the cause?"

She thought about it. "Well, he had put on some weight over the last couple of years. And he wasn't exactly into exercise. He always took the elevator."

They worked on the third floor. That was ridiculous. "So they asked you to take over his director job?"

She nodded. "Yea. It's a lot of extra work. It's not just the editorial stuff. It's all the sales and marketing shit that I hate too."

"What's in it for you?"

"A salary bump, which I get to keep when Sam comes back, an extra week of vacation, and the undying gratitude of my boss's boss."

"That sounds okay."

She shrugged. "It means less working at home for a while." She grimaced. "Full weeks in the office. What's that about?" She sighed. "Poor Sam."

I couldn't tell her. Not today, and not until I knew I had to consider it for sure. But then, I should have told her. We should have been discussing it right now.

She just looked so damn sad about Sam. I'd wait until I knew for sure. "You should send him flowers. Maybe a fruit basket?"

"Maybe I will. I'll go see him when I'm back in the city. I have a feeling Daphne is taking good care of him." The new girlfriend that Sookie hated. That's why she wasn't in a hurry to call. "Are you okay watching the kids for a few days next week? I have to go in. Maybe Stella can come help us out." Stella was crazy enough to take a waitressing job in New York for the summer. She called to bitch about it daily, and came down every time she had a free day. Johan was TAing all summer at NYU, which was why she'd stuck around. I was half expecting him to come to me for a man to man chat sometime, because it was obvious, from the non-existent relationship she'd developed with Gus, that I was going to be footing the bill for the wedding.

"I can handle it." I smiled. "So I ordered the pizza, and selected a few Netflix's options for tonight. If you still want to do that."

"I just want something mindless. I'm going to have to think my ass off next week. Thank God the sales meeting was two weeks ago." She'd gone down for most of it, but she'd simply been able to oversee her editors, and proof presentations, instead of having to organize the whole thing like Sam did. "Eric?" She smiled sweetly. "Can you get me a beer?"

"Sure." She was stressed. She never drank beer. "You sure you don't want something else?"

She cocked her head at me. "Maybe a gin and tonic? I was trying to think of something that went with pizza."

"Red wine?"

"Yes, that's it." She smiled. "You're so great. I know this is going to be a bit of extra work for you, being solo parent for a bit."

I hoped she was alright with it too, when I potentially got shipped off to France for four months. "Oh, it'll be fine. Ceci's getting bigger. Having her out of diapers is huge."

We both exhaled loudly. That had been a lot of work. "Yea, I thank God or whoever for that every day." She snorted. "I swear, if I hadn't gone through the excruciating pain of giving birth to her, I'd swear she was Pam's child."

Ceci was certainly precocious. That was for sure.

"So you don't want another yet, is what you're saying." I glanced at her, and we both cracked up laughing. "Sorry, I couldn't resist." We were sticking at two, and taking it very seriously. The old snip snip was the best move I had ever made. Fucking without even the slightest thought of pregnancy was a pretty good feeling. I knew the stats, but the odds were incredibly low. It hadn't really altered our sex life either, in fact, we both kind of wanted to do it more, since we'd more or less taken pregnancy off the table. It all felt the same to me.

Also, the kids were a bit older, and didn't need our constant attention. Max had kind of figured out that mom and dad needed adult time, and was quite content to busy himself in his room if our door was closed from time to time in the evening, but Ceci didn't really understand that logic.

She also still hadn't mastered knocking, no matter how many times we tried to explain it to her. I couldn't even count the number of awkward situations we'd had to explain away. If there was another adult in the house we locked the bedroom door, but both of us were nervous about doing that when it was just us around.

"When's the pizza coming?" Sookie wrinkled up her nose at the wine. "Is this the crap that Bill left us last week?"

"Yes, and any minute." I sniffed my glass. "Do you want to open a new bottle?"

"Later. No use letting this go to waste, just because Bill has terrible taste in wine." She tipped the glass up. "Tonight, we're getting drunk."

"Do you want to call Sam or something?" It was obvious that she was upset, and I was guessing that was the cause. I finished my glass of wine. It was terrible, and a shame, because there were so many good, reasonably priced wines out there. Why anyone would pay fifty bucks for crap was beyond me.

"I should, before I get too drunk." She leaned over, and whispered in my ear. "Promise to take advantage of me later?"

I nodded, "Of course," and pulled her onto my lap, getting one good kiss in before she wiggled away.

She stood up, winked, grabbed her phone and headed into our room.

The pizza came a few minutes later, and she emerged just after, her face slightly screwed up in irritation. "I know this is mean, but I hate his fucking girlfriend, and I'm mad at him for needing a bypass, because that means I'm going to have to do his job longer."

"So it was serious, then."

She rolled her eyes. "Well, from the two minutes I was allowed to speak to him before Daphne decided he'd had enough, yes. Jesus, does she think I'm going to have phone sex with him while he's in the ICU?"

The new girlfriend was quite threatened by Sookie, for some reason. It was weird, since I was Sam's superior in every way. He'd really gained a lot of weight in the last couple of years, and Sookie was incredibly professional, besides that. I guess they worked quite closely on things, but I wasn't threatened by Sam in the least. If anyone should have been threatened, it should have been Sam, when it came to Sookie and his job.

"I'd expect it if I was in the ICU." I pulled her onto my knee and passed her a slice.

"I know you would." She giggled, pouring us each other glass of wine.

We made it through a bottle and a half a pizza before we'd had enough. I closed the pizza box to keep Lily out of it, and threw her over my shoulder, before heading for our room.

After seven years, two kids, and a hell of a lot of shit being thrown at us from our friends and family, we were good as gold in every way that mattered. I sat against the headboard, and she straddled my lap, while we struggled to get undressed without breaking contact. Finally we gave up, splitting apart long enough to get our pants off, and resumed.

"Are those new underwear?" I murmured, trying to tug them down, before finally setting for tugging them aside. "I like them." They were pink. With some lace. And a bow.

"Not new. You just never look at my underwear before you chuck them on the floor." She giggled, stopping me mid thrust to remove them. "That's better. Why don't you take yours off too. Kids are gone. We don't have to rush quite so much, remember?"

I looked down, realizing that I'd just pulled my dick out of my boxers. "Yea, that's a good call."

Once we were divested of all our clothing, she sat back in my lap. It was a bit of a favourite of ours, and when I thought about it, because I was constantly thinking about sex, I'd decided there were probably a few reasons for that. Firstly, no one was on top. It was nice to be on top, sure, but we were both kind of pushy and liked to be in charge. This position negated that. It was a very egalitarian way to fuck. Secondly, we were more or less eye to eye, which we both liked, because it added an extra level of intimacy. Thirdly, there was lots of skin to skin contact. Yea, that was good, I thought, as Sookie's nipples brushed my chest. It was also a good take off position for a lot of other positions. Either one of us could get on top easily, or we could lay on our sides, which we also did quite often. I could go forever on my side, since it was mostly shallow thrusting.

However, as Sookie so hotly reminded me from time to time, my shallow thrusting wasn't so shallow.

The upright sitting lap position, or whatever it was technically called certainly didn't involve shallow anything. It felt fucking incredible, as did Sookie's hot little mouth on my nipple. I was done for when she reached behind and fingered my balls.

But she wasn't done yet. I was a gentleman, and I usually made she she came first. She saw it as a bit of a challenge at times, to try and get me off first, and I was a sucker for a ball fondle . I made sure I was good and done, before shoving her down on her back, and moving a mouth to her breast and not so gently moving my fingers to fill the void my dick left. She gasped, arching her back to meet my fingers. "Oh, you like that, do you?" I whispered in her ear.

"Please, baby," she whispered back.

I was never one to resist her pleas. Delayed gratification wasn't really part of our sexual vocabulary. Sookie's climax button, in a situation like this, where we'd been at it a while, and she wasn't far off anyway, was something she'd resisted for a long time, but now couldn't get enough of. Oh, so deviant, but incredibly erotic anal stimulation. I had to admit, it wasn't something I had a great deal of experience either, since it wasn't a move you pulled out with someone didn't have a serious relationship with. Anyway, it worked every time. Not that I used it every time. I was better than that.

I happily listened to her chant my name like a mantra, as she writhed on our bed. I loved her O face. Her orgasm usually lasted a hell of a lot longer than mine. It was interesting how that worked.

We curled up together later, on the couch, and watched some totally cheeseball romantic comedy about a long distance relationship with that annoying guy from the Apple commercials, and Drew Barrymore, who I totally would have fucked.

"Man, I'm glad we never had to do long distance. That was a terrible movie, and it made it look so shitty," Sookie yawned, as we meandered off to bed.

I was so fucked. I needed to figure out a way to make this semester in Paris thing go away, and fast.


	2. Slow Show

**So you missed these guys too! Yay! Thanks for all the review love for these two! I'm not going to say it makes me write faster, but it certainly is inspiring! **

**A couple of you mentioned that you forgot some of the characters. If you need a refresher the other stories are on this site, and on my blog. **

**Anyway, I hope you like! **

* * *

**Sookie**

Eric was hiding something. I could almost smell it on him, after seven years. He also owed me a manuscript in two months, which he swore would be finished on time, but that I hadn't seen yet. I figured the two things were related.

However, as I walked into my office after a month away in a new power dress that Pam had insisted that I bought for my first day as acting director of the higher education division, whatever was going on with him went to the back of my mind. The dress was black, form fitting, and she said it made my breasts look like they meant business, whatever that meant. I let her dress me far too often, but she did have wonderful taste when it came to me, even if it wasn't her style. At all.

I'd worry about Eric later. Maybe when I got to go home to the Hamptons on the weekend. Today, I had bigger fish to fry, and I hadn't been so nervous about anything since my first days as an intern almost ten years earlier.

I was ambitious, sure, but recently that ambition was divided between my personal and professional lives. I wanted to be successful here, yes, but I also wanted my kids to read at the top of their class, and play well with others, and not run with scissors. Ceci would absolutely be a scissor runner.

I had no idea raising a female Northman would be so challenging. Ceci made Max look like a walk in the park. He was such a cool kid, really a lot like Eric in many ways, calm, honest, with a bit of a rough exterior, but secretly a cuddle lover. Ceci had cried for an hour when I'd left the night before, and when I'd checked in this morning, Eric said she ended up sleeping with him, sprawled out sideways across the bed.

I knew she kicked too, so I felt for him, while I was stretched out in our massive bed all alone. Don't get me wrong, I would have preferred him in bed too, but it was nice to have a night on my own now and then. I wasn't sure I was going to like a bunch of them all in a row this week, but we'd talk on the phone. We were terrible at phone sex though. Maybe I could talk them into coming into the city for a couple of days.

When I sat down at Sam's desk, my face instantly screwed up at the chaos before me. There were invoices that needed to be signed, costings that needed to be approved, most of them already signed by me, and a stack of unopened mail six inches high.

I had the feeling by the end of this, I was going to make him wish the heart attach had killed him.

I knew Sam was never good at organization, and I was obsessed with it. I spent the morning sorting through the ten thousand unread emails in his inbox, most of which were unimportant, and should have been deleted months ago. I was pleased to see that he always read mine though, even if he wasn't reading other stuff sent to him.

Niall, the president of the company stopped by around two. I'd completely lost track of time and skipped lunch, I realized, as he tapped on the door.

I glanced up from the pile of invoices and expenses I'd been going through. "Oh, hi."

He smiled at me. Niall had almost a bit of a magical quality at times, with his shiny blue eyes and translucent skin, and impeccable dress. Today he was in a very nice charcoal suit with a navy tie. He was also practically a legend in New York publishing, having signed some pretty well-known New York Times bestsellers in his day. If there was anything I was looking forward to with any of this, it was getting to pick his brain a bit. "Let's go get a drink."

If he hadn't been my boss's boss, I would have said I didn't have time, and it was the middle of the afternoon. However, he was, and we did have some things to discuss, mainly how long I was going to be doing this for. "Sure. Can we get something to eat too. I haven't had lunch."

"Of course." He smiled brightly, before cringing at Sam's desk. "That's a lot of stuff."

I nodded, fighting the urge to make an inbox crack. "Yea, I guess a lot can pile up in a week."

We ended up at the King Cole in the St. Regis, which was one of the coolest bars in the city, in my opinion anyway. It felt very Mad Men, and I was glad I'd dressed up for work, even thought it had been wasted for most of the day on the dust bunnies in Sam's office. Niall ordered a scotch, and I had a Bloody Mary and a cob salad, even though I really wanted a hamburger.

Niall swished his glass a bit. I knew nothing about scotch. Eric knew some things, but I never listened when he tried to explain it to me. I was usually slightly drunk during those conversations and he was kind of a distraction in himself. "So everything is going well?"

I nodded, slightly hesitantly. "Yea, I think so."

"No one knows what they're doing when they first start a job. Just act like you do, and it'll be fine."

Now that was interesting advice. "I think I'll be alright. I really hate clutter, and Sam doesn't seem to have much of an issue with it. He's probably going to hate me when he gets back and I've ruined his careful piles." I smiled.

He took a rather large gulp of scotch. "That's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about."

I countered with a large gulp of my Bloody Mary. "Oh?"

He leaned back in his chair. "You know, we've been doing some of the best books we've ever done since you took over editorial. Signings are up, we're really well reviewed, and sales are good. We're even up on the whole, slightly, when the industry is down. But, I think we could do better. When everyone else is down, and we're not, it means there's room for growth once we pull out of this economic funk, and signs point to that."

I smiled politely, having another drink. "Well that sounds good."

"Sam's holding your division back. He's sloppy, and he has a terrible nose for business. His marketing manager, Luna has been complaining about him for years, and Calvin's been working his ass off in sales to make up for his shortcomings there."

My eyes went a bit wide. "I had no idea."

"I'm sure if you think back on it, you did. You're only as strong as your team, and I'll admit, Sam picked a good team, but I think he's the weakest player. You've seen the chaos in his office. His reports to me are sloppy, and he's never on time with anything."

I kind of knew what Niall was getting at, but it wasn't something I wanted to know. "So what are you proposing?"

He finished his scotch. "I don't know. I know he's your boss, and you're a loyal person, but there might be some changes coming. This heart attack happened at very inopportune time. That's all I'm going to say for now. I trust you'll keep this to yourself, and consider this an opportunity to learn all you can about his job."

Fuck, fuck, fuck. "Oh, okay," I said, instead, a hesitant smile on my face. I didn't want Sam's job. "You know, Sam's always been a good boss to me."

"Well, it's nice that you think so highly of him, but he makes your job a lot harder than it has to be. I've seen you at work until seven or eight at times, and I know you have two small children at home. I also know that you're married to one of our most important authors, and that managing his ego is probably almost a full-time job in itself, never mind getting him to bring his book in on time. I think a good work life balance is important." He caught the waiter's eye for another drink. "Frankly, I think Sam looks a lot harder at work than he actually is. I think, in time, someone with some ambition could really turn a good division into a great one. Just think about that a bit."

I furrowed my brow slightly, really not liking the way this was going. "Okay, I will."

"Excellent." He smiled brightly, like he hadn't just told me that my boss was on his last legs both personally and professionally. "So, I was thinking your husband should think about doing a trade book. Maybe an examination of sex and New York city. With great pictures. I think it could sell really well."

I politely listened to him ramble on a bit about that, thinking that there was no way Eric would have time to write anything if this job got dumped on my lap. I made it back to the office around 3:30 p.m., and started going through my inbox for the day.

Max called me around four. I grinned genuinely for the first time all day when I heard his little voice on the speaker phone. "Mom?"

"Hey you." Yep, perma grin. He was such a great kid.

"Dad's driving, but he wanted me to tell you that we're getting fish and chips today because he knows you don't like them, and that we're going to come home on Thursday. And that we hope you are having a good day at work."

"Thanks kiddo. How's your sister?"

"Good. She coloured for most of the afternoon, so Dad and I got some work done." I wasn't exactly sure what work was for Max, but he took most things quite seriously. "We're going to watch _How to Train Your Dragon_ later."

I loved Eric in daddy mode. It was really hard to imagine him like he was when I first met him, when he was with the kids. I smiled to myself, knowing that he'd be just as enthralled as they were about a movie with dragons and Vikings. "Good. I miss you guys. Tell your dad to call me later."

I stayed until seven, before calling it quits, due to my extreme hunger. A quick call to Charm Thai and I was on my way. I beat the delivery man home by minutes, before practically devouring the bag in the doorway. I was halfway through my pad thai when I realized I wasn't alone.

Stella. Using my washing machine. I walked through the house to find her sitting on top of the machine with a tattered copy of _The Joy of Sex_ on her knee.

That lived in our room, on a very high bookshelf. "What are you doing here?"

She flipped the book shut. "Washer is broken at our place."

"Where'd you get that?" I pointed to the book.

She shrugged. "I didn't think you'd be around. I didn't know you were in the city."

I cocked an eyebrow at her. Like most Northmans, Stella had boundary issues. "So it's okay to go through our room, when you don't think we're around?"

"Sorry. I didn't think it would be a problem. Is everything okay, Sookie?" She cocked her head at me.

"Busy day. I just need a bit of quiet time." I rubbed my eyes. "Eric and the kids will be back on Thursday. I don't suppose you want to see your brother and sister for a few hours on Friday night?"

She nodded. "Well, since I'm using your washer and taking some chicken from your freezer for dinner, I guess I could do that. Are you going out or staying in?"

"I don't know. I hadn't thought that far ahead." I leaned against the doorframe. I just really wanted to talk to him about work for a while. I really didn't feel great about any of this with Sam. "Can you take them to your place, or out for dinner?"

She looked irritated, but agreed anyway. Stella had her moments but she was mostly helpful. Probably because we were _very_ helpful to her. "Yea, I can do that. I haven't seen them much this summer I guess. Maybe we'll go to a movie."

"That would be great."

She eyed me curiously. "No problem. You want some pot or something, Sookie? Take the edge off? I could have Johan bring some by."

I smiled and shook my head. "I just need to sleep."

"Sure, sure. Another time. I have to say though," she picked up _The Joy of Sex_, "I'm a little disturbed by the pages that are flagged in this."

"Eric uses that for research. You don't have to be disturbed about anything." I winked at her, and walked out into the kitchen. Yea, we'd pulled it out a time or two, but there wasn't really anything in there that an intelligent person couldn't figure out on their own.

After devouring the rest of my food, along with a hearty glass of red wine, and waving Stella out, I curled up in bed with _The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo_, which I'd been trying to read all summer. Ten minutes in, Eric called.

"Hello, Lover."

His voice still made my toes curl. "Hey. Kids in bed?"

"Yes. Impressed?"

I was. It was before nine. "Very. Work sucks."

He was quiet for a minute. "Oh?"

"We'll talk about it when you're here. I had a rather ominous lunch with my new boss. Stel said she'd take the kids on Friday for a while."

Another minute of silence. We were terrible on the phone. "I may come down on Wednesday. I have a meeting with Appius Occella Thursday morning that we should discuss."

That didn't sound good. "Is everything okay?" Eric was such a superstar at work. I never figured he'd have any issues to discuss.

However, Appius was a first class asshole.

"It's fine. Just a couple of things I need to sort out for fall. Don't worry about it."

When people said that, it automatically meant that it was time to worry. "Well, I'm worried now. Is this why you've been weird?"

More silence. "I'm not sure what you mean."

I crossed my arms, even though he wasn't there to see it. "Yes you are."

"I was hoping it would go away, and I found out the day you found out about Sam. It's not going away."

"What's not going away?" I noticed my voice go up an octave. This was shaping up to be a stellar week.

"I don't want to do this on the phone."

"Is it that big of a deal?" And now I was squeaking.

"Can we Skype at least? Or I can come down tomorrow?"

"Well I'd like to sleep tonight, so I guess we should Skype." I felt sick, absolutely sick. Eric earned a hell of a lot more than me. There was no way they could fire him. He was really well known, got great student reviews, somehow, and had tenure. No way. He could sue the pants off them if they tried without cause. Unless he'd done something terrible. Shit. What the hell had he done?

"Go get set up, and I'll call you in five."

I grabbed my laptop, and settled in, trying not to let my mind swim with all the awful things that Eric could have done, in order to have problems with NYU. I knew he wasn't capable of doing a lot of the things my mind came up with, but I also knew that you didn't actually have to do things to be accused of them sometimes. Academia was an awful, backbitey place, much like I'd learned publishing was today. When I heard the obnoxious Skype ring, I answered immediately. "Tell me everything, please."

He blinked at me on the computer screen. "Hi to you too."

"You've kind of got me freaked out here." I crossed my arms so he could see this time. "What's going on?"

He sighed. "Ocella wants everyone with tenure to do a semester abroad. He wants to send me to the Sorbonne."

I looked at him deadpan. Paris? Seriously? "You can't go to the Sorbonne. You have a family. Little kids. A wife with a full-time job."

Another sigh. "I explained all that, Sookie. I've been explaining it over email and by phone, and to everyone that will listen for a week now. It comes down to this. If I go, I'm Chair of the Department for a three year term. If I refuse, then I'm stuck teaching early morning and night classes until I switch schools or retire."

I narrowed my eyes at the screen, pissed. "He can't do that."

"He's got everyone's approval on this. They're trying to pitch NYU as an international school, make it more like Columbia, with the international students paying the big tuition. If I was Chair, I wouldn't have to teach. I could be home by five every day, find time to research, revise my book, maybe see my kids. It's a semester, which is sounding better and better when I think of the alternative."

I knew, looking at him, that he was struggling. "I don't like this."

"I don't like this either, believe me. I've been kicking up a real stink, to no avail." He gave me a pouty face. "I'm sorry."

I wanted to be irritated for him not telling me right away, but part of me was grateful that he hadn't dumped that on me until he knew for sure. I was not happy about this, and it was really happening. I really didn't need to be worrying about maybes, not with my work the way it was. "Do you have any details, or is this just a hypothetical semester?"

"That I'll confirm on Thursday. The Chair position is up in April though, so it has to be soon for that to work."

"Like for September? What the fuck, Eric? He can't send you away on three weeks notice."

"I'd have to volunteer. It would get it out of the way, and then for three years we wouldn't have to worry about after school programs, or a babysitter, or anything. Well, we could worry about a babysitter, but when we wanted to do stuff. I know it sucks, but long-term, it's really the best option."

It sounded like a terrible option. I felt my eyes well up with tears. "I guess we'll talk more about it when you're here."

He gave me a half smile. "We'll come up tomorrow, if you can handle us. I'm really sorry about this. Believe me, it's not what I had planned at all."

"I'd like that," I choked out. "I should go to bed. Busy day tomorrow."

He furrowed his brow. I really wished he was here. "Sookie. We'll figure it out. Please don't cry."

I wiped my eyes, feeling kind of dumb for crying over Skype. "I just, well, I, we haven't been apart for more than a week since we've known each other. And who would I complain about the kids with that wouldn't judge me for it?"

He smiled. "Pam? Or me, over Skype? Bill?"

He got a smile out of me with that. "We'll talk tomorrow. I'll be home by six."

"I'll have the kids fed and bathed by then. We'll have a nice evening when they go to bed." He smiled. "Sook, it'll be okay. We'll make it okay."

I knew we would. It just wasn't going to be easy.


	3. Wonderful Tonight

**You like them, you really, really like them! Yay! I'm glad I'm not the only one that missed these crazy kids. **

**I thought about giving out teases for reviews, but I seem to keep just writing and writing. They're so easy to write. If I ever get ahead, I'll do it, but I hope you'll just take my quick updates as thanks for the love! Keep leaving me me a few words, and I'll do my best to leave you a few thousand.  
**

**Also, I did a stat check on my blog, and yesterday was the busiest day I've had since starting it, so thanks for that! Almost all the hits were on The Expert, so I guess you guys are catching up! In case you're still looking for that story, it's at seastarr08 dot wordpress dot com.  
**

* * *

**Eric**

Sookie didn't get home until just before seven, which was probably for the best, since it gave me time to get the kids really ready for bed, despite Ceci's minor diva attack when she found a mushroom in her spaghetti.

She looked beat when she got in the door, yet really did her mom thing, hugging the kids, and listening to them tell her about their few days apart. She gave me a kiss as they ran up the stairs for story time.

"Rough day, Lover?"

She nodded, wrapping her arms around me. "We'll talk about it when they're in bed. I don't want them to think anything is wrong."

Lots was potentially wrong. Sookie had been having a shit time at work, and then there was my little problem, which wasn't going away as I'd hoped. I was glad I'd told her last night though, because I knew from past experiences that she didn't like being kept in the dark on things, even if it was for her own good, or so I thought.

I hated seeing her cry though, even though I knew it was for the best long term. I suppose I could have started looking for another job, but I'd never make chair in ten years at another school. I'd laid my cards down at NYU, and it had really worked for me.

She came down about an hour later, and without a word, curled up in my lap on the couch. I wrapped my arms around her, and we just didn't say anything for a while. I knew she was crying, from her sniffling, so I just held her, figuring she'd talk when she was ready.

Eventually when she did, and it kind of broke my heart.

She turned around so I could see her, and I wiped her tears out of her eyes with my thumbs. "They want to fire Sam, and give me his job. Niall took me out for drinks at King Cole to tell me."

That sucked. I knew her and Sam were close. He was one of the first people there that had really went to bat for her, and really, was probably the reason she'd gotten as far as she had. "Why do they want to fire Sam?"

"Niall doesn't think he's pulling his weight. He thinks he's the weakest link, and that we're all working harder than we have to to make up for his shortcomings."

Niall had quite the reputation for being cut-throat, so I wasn't surprised. "Do you think that's true?"

She pouted for a minute, before continuing. She was so cute when she was pouty. It was probably why I had a hard time resisting Ceci. She pouted a lot like Sookie. "I didn't, at first, but then I started thinking about it, and now I'm not really sure. Even after two days, I realized that he's not doing that much. I was doing a lot of the things that Niall thought he was doing, and I don't know if that's the same for sales and marketing."

"They can't fire him when he's just had a heart attack. He'd have grounds to sue."

She nodded. "Niall came by today and said they'd buy him out on early retirement or bring him back for two weeks and let him go."

I furrowed my brow, wondering if I could get early retirement. "He's not even fifty."

She sniffed a bit more. "Niall tried to sugar coat it by saying that he had lots of time to do something new, something he was better suited for."

Yea, that was a nice way of saying someone sucked at their job. "So what are you thinking? Do you want his job?"

She shrugged. "I was pretty opposed to the idea at first, but I don't know. It might not be so bad, since I seemed to be doing parts of it anyway."

"I know you _can_ do it. It's more of a matter of if you want to or not."

"I think I could be really good at it, you know? It's a hard opportunity to turn down. I would have been home at five today if I didn't get a stack of resumes that I wanted to look at for my current job."

I had a somewhat disheartening thought. "Have you already accepted Sam's job?"

She shook her head. "Of course not. We'd need to talk about that. Niall just had some applicants from his old press in the UK that he wanted me to check out."

I should have known she wouldn't take it. She'd mentioned specifically discussing it with me. "So he's had this plan in motion for a while then."

She nodded. "I would say so. He called the timing of Sam's heart attack most inopportune."

Asshole. "So are you leaning towards taking the job?"

She nodded. "Honestly, yes, but I wanted your opinion."

I kissed her forehead. "Would I have to get another editor?"

She shook her head, a little smile on her face. "I'd write it into my contract."

"I'm going to be finished on time, you know."

She rolled her eyes a little. "Well you kind of have to be, since you're probably leaving."

She knew me so well. "I would have maybe been two weeks late. That's all. I really buckled down over the last week or so."

She wrapped her arms around me, hiding her face in my neck. This was going to be a hard three weeks, if she kept crying. I hated when she cried, more than anything. "I don't want you to go," she whispered.

"Lover, I don't want to go either. You have no idea how much I don't want to go." I sighed. "But I'll go, and then I'll come back, and then we'll have all the time in the world. I'll make sure I can get home for a week somewhere in the middle. We'll talk every day, not on the phone, but on Skype. I'll read to the kids on Skype and give you a night off now and then." I'd thought about this a lot, being forced to consider how we would make this work. "We'll email, and text, and sext, and you'll be so tired of hearing from me that you'll shut your phone off."

She brought her face out of hiding and pouted at me some more. "I'd never do that."

I tilted her chin towards me and kissed her softly. "Don't make that a challenge."

She sniffed a bit more. "When would you come home?"

I hadn't thought that far ahead. I guess I had to though. "Somewhere in the middle. Maybe for Thanksgiving?"

"I wish I could come to Paris. I don't know if I'll be able to though. Not for long enough to get the kids acclimated. Unless you want to take one with you? Maybe the small squirrely one?" She smiled.

We both knew that she'd never let me take one. And I'd never do that to her, to any of them. "They're kind of a matched set though. Ying and Yang. And you know Max would never tolerate me reading him bedtime stories unless absolutely necessary." It was too far to fly them for any less than a couple of weeks, and with this work thing, it wasn't a good time. If she really wanted to go, we'd go another time when the timing was better. "And I know I'd have a hard time getting you to go to Paris, after what Bill did to you there."

She sat back and crossed her arms. "What he did to me? Come on. There were two of us doing the doing."

"Oh, that's some good English usage there, Lover. Doing the doing."

"Shush." Her eyes sparkled, despite the tears rimming the edges. "You're such a jerk."

I kissed her again, pulling her back into my embrace. "But I'm your jerk."

My meeting with Appius around lunch time, so Pam showed up at about eleven to watch the kids. "So you're really going?" I'd explained the details the night I told Sookie, so she'd watch the kids without laying a guilt trip on me and try to get me to take Gaby for like six days as payback.

I shushed her. "We haven't told the kids yet. Don't say anything. We want to tell them when we know all the details."

She shrugged. "I won't say anything. I'm sure everything will be fine. Remember when Dad used to go? We were fine."

Both of us had a shit relationship with Dad because he was gone so much. "I'm only going once. Not monthly."

"Four months is a long time in the eyes of a kid."

I rolled my eyes at her. "Thanks, Pam, you're making me feel much better about this. It's four months, and then I'm working white collar hours for three years. The kids will wish I wasn't around so much."

Pam smiled. "Maybe I'll come and see you. We can tear shit up like we used to. Remember London?"

God, that sounded terrible. I wished I could forget London ten years ago. "Maybe."

She looked up, thinking about the time I was there. I knew she was trying to make an excuse to go to Paris to make me feel better, so I wouldn't think she was just coming for me. Pam wasn't terribly sentimental, so it was nice that she wanted to come. She'd never let on that she was just coming for me. "You'll be there for Spring Fashion Week. I'll absolutely come and see you."

"I'd like that."

"I guess neither of us are in much of a position to be doing body shots off models anymore, huh?" She smiled.

I shook my head. "Nope, I don't think we are."

She sighed. "When did that happen?"

"When we got married and had kids."

"Right." She sighed again.

"Maybe you can pick up a model with Alcide. I'll watch Gab."

She titled her head, looking at me with love. "You'd do that?"

I shrugged. "Sure. I'll be dying for some Dora the Explorer by then."

Pam and Sookie had gotten very drunk one night, about a year ago, and Pam had spilled all the sordid details of her sex life with Alcide to an intrigued Sookie, who had of course told me all about it. She was intrigued, but not enough to want to give it a college try.

I was quite relieved about that. It was not somewhere I wanted to go. I liked her and I. No complications. Just great vanilla sex, and lots of it. Maybe more than vanilla. Maybe French vanilla. With some sprinkles from time to time. Maybe some butterscotch topping. Definitely whipped cream too.

Anyway, after years of somewhat twisted curiosity, I knew more than I wanted to about my sister's married sexual habits. Not that I was judgey, but she was my little sister. Of course, I knew more than enough about her sexual habits from when she lived with me sometimes to last a lifetime.

I made it to NYU about twenty minutes before my meeting but made a point of not being early. I certainly didn't want to seem overeager for this. When I knocked on his door at noon on the dot, he answered immediately.

He was so slimy, with his cheap suit and slicked back hair. I hated that he had me by the balls. "Eric, so nice to see you. I trust you're having a pleasant summer?"

I internally rolled my eyes. "Yea, it's been good. It's gone by too quickly though."

He smiled, in a way that made me want to punch the smug impression off his stupid face. "So, you're thinking the Sorbonne in September? I've done some shuffling, and we can fill your courses with grad students while you're gone."

"Wow, that sounds great." I fought the urge to roll my eyes. Appius fucked grad students, always of the youngish male persuasion, despite the fact that he was married to a total beard from old money.

"Your wife has a problem with you having a little fun?" He said, almost in a taunting way.

I shrugged, pissed that he would even mention Sookie. She hated him possibly more than I did, and was pretty convinced that he wanted to fuck me. "I don't really want to leave my kids, but I don't want to have shit classes for the next ten years, or until I'm forced to apply for a job elsewhere."

He smiled. "Smart man. So I've made all the arrangements. You start teaching on the fifth, three courses. My contact there will be in touch with further details. He did some shuffling to give you classes that apply to your research area, so you owe him a thank you when you get there. Victor is a lovely man. I'm sure you'll get along well. He's doing a wonderful study on psychological manipulation right now, which is really cutting edge.

How the hell did one do ethically a study on that? Maybe the rules were different in France. "Cool. Well, if we're done here, I have four months of time to spend with my kids in three weeks."

He shook his head at me. "Don't take this so personally. They're children. They'll hardly notice you're gone."

I fought the urge to choke him. "I'm a very hands on dad, and you should know better than anyone, as a doctor of psychology, that these things do have long term affects if not properly dealt with."

And then he got lippy. "Don't quote research to me. Just go, and do your job."

And with that, I'd had enough. "Have a wonderful day."

It was that very afternoon that I decided that if I was going to stay at NYU, Appius Occella was going to have to go. I'd have four months to calculate my revenge.

When I got home, Pam was out the door in a flash to deal with Gaby teething and nearly giving Alcide a nervous breakdown, and I was left with Max and Ceci. I think the worst part of this was, no matter how silly it might have been, I felt like I was really letting them down. Sookie could understand of course, that I wasn't abandoning her, no matter how mad she was at me, or upset she was.

Max could probably kind of understand. He was a smart kid, and he and I were much the same in many ways, very practical. He knew that work was serious, and if work said I had to do something, I didn't have much choice.

It was Ceci that I was worried about. I had awful visions of her having man issues from the four months that she thought I was abandoned her. I'd have to really think about ways to make her remember me and know that I'd left, but I hadn't left them. Maybe I'd take pictures of things she'd like, or mail postcards, or something. I'd buy her the moon if she could just really understand.

Sookie made it home by six on the dot, practically racing the clock to get in the door. It was cute, because I knew she really wanted me to know that we came first, no matter how crazy her day was. I knew we did. I liked that she was independent. I never would have wanted her any other way.

I smiled as she breezed in the door. "I made stir fry."

She sniffed the air. "Smells good. Sam's not taking the package. Niall wants me to talk to him, off the record." She shook her head, and muttered "Fuck," under her breath.

"When?"

She popped in and said hi to the kids, who were enthralled with something on TV, scooped out some rice and veggies, and sat down at the kitchen table. "He wants to give him a week to sit on it. I hate this."

"I hope you're getting a bigger raise."

She nodded. "And I negotiated six weeks of vacation. Not that I'll be able to take any of it until next spring. I think I'll dick off for most of the summer."

"That sounds good already. Something to look forward to."

She nodded. "We need that. How was your meeting?"

"Wonderful." I shook my head. "He's such an ass."

She rolled her eyes. "No kidding. Did he offer to let you off the hook if you blew him? Because honestly, I'd probably say to go for it if it meant you didn't have to go."

"The offer wasn't put on the table, I assure you." I raised an eyebrow. "And from what I hear about where that's been, you wouldn't want that. Even if it meant I got to be a house husband for life because we'd never be able to F U C K again. Not the way you like anyway."

Sookie snorted. "Max can spell. Hopefully not that I guess."

I picked a piece of baby corn out of her bowl. She didn't like the baby corn. The water chestnuts on the other hand, were off limits. "Hopefully not."

Because I'd turned into a huge suck, I stood in the doorway while she read to the kids, listening to her lovely melodic tone, which was kind ironic because she had a terrible singing voice. I wanted to remember this, every minute of it, when I was spending my nights alone, without the warmth that my family had brought to my life.

It was going to be a long four months.

I went downstairs as she finished tucking them in and poured us each a glass of Baileys. It was a Baileys kind of night.

She joined me a few minutes later, and the glimmer in her eye told me that I'd captured the evening's mood exactly. "Thanks. I didn't think we had any or I probably would have finished the whole bottle on Monday night."

"It's on a high shelf. I can see Ce thinking that it was chocolate milk or something. Or worse, feeding it to Lil."

She took a sip, took my hand and led me to the couch, pushed me down and sat on my knee. "I promise I'll keep a running diary of all the ridiculous things she does for you."

I rested my head against hers. "I expect a daily report."

She nodded. "We need to improve our phone sex skills."

I shifted her so she was leaning against the arm of the couch, her legs over my lap."I guess we'll have lots of time to practice. Practice makes perfect."

More pout. "I don't want to be perfect at phone sex. I'd rather be perfect at real sex."

I laughed. "If we were perfect at real sex, what would we laugh about?" We laughed a lot about sex. Sometimes about silly things, and sometimes we'd compete with each other for first orgasm. I loved every minute of it.

"Fair enough." Her eyes got wet again. "I'll miss everything about you, even the parts that drive me crazy."

"In both good ways and bad ways?" I raised an eyebrow.

She nodded. "Yes, exactly."

"We're both good at masturbating. We'll be okay."

"It's more fun as foreplay though."

"I won't argue with you there. I'll bring you back some French lingerie. The stuff that you can't wear under ever day clothes. Crotchless panties, that kind of thing." That stuff was so silly.

She held up a finger. "Wait a minute. Is that a present for me, or for you?"

"Everyone. We all win with crotchless panties."

She smiled. "Take me to bed?"

I set her glass down and pulled her to her feet. "We have three weeks to have four months worth of sex. We'll have to fuck like five times tonight, and every night until I leave."

She leaned back against me. "I won't be able to walk."

I smiled, pushing her ahead of me into our room. "That's okay. You have a desk job. No walking necessary."


	4. Goodbye, My Lover

**Sooo thanks for reading! Seriously, I'm so impressed and thrilled that you guys still want to read about these guys so long after I wrote the other stuff! Thanks for all the review love, and comments, and blog reading, and favouriting, and alerting! I heart you all!**

* * *

**Sookie**

I put off seeing Sam for two weeks. I really didn't want to be responsible for him having another heart attack.

And I had other things on my mind. I'd gone through a wide range of emotions since we'd really confirmed Eric was leaving. Every time he did something like book his ticket, or buy a new suitcase, I got pretty bummed.

But then again, I didn't want to spend our last time together for a while sad and depressed. It was hard to not spend three weeks worrying about what would be.

It had been really hard, telling the kids. Ceci hadn't understood at all, and Max had asked if we were getting a divorce, after Ce went to bed. He had friends whose parents were divorced. He cried a bit, which was really heartbreaking, since he was usually such a little man. Eric had taken that especially hard, and he told me after we finally got Max to bed that it brought back a lot of memories from when he was a kid. He hadn't cried, but I'd seen his eyes turn a bit red.

It wasn't the kind of thing I'd ever mention.

We spent the weekends in the Hamptons, and tried our hardest to kid ourselves that our lives weren't about to change drastically. When we'd look at each other though, the closer we got to day zero, it was more and more obvious that this wasn't going to be easy. Not by a long shot. We'd been through a lot, but we'd never faced a challenge like this.

Eric volunteered to come to the hospital with me, and then we had a date at our Mexican place, followed by dancing. Our first non-date recreated. I'd wore a red dress that Eric loved and was made for dancing, but thrown a cardigan over it, so Daphne and I wouldn't get into a bitch fight when she accused me of trying to seduce Sam, while my husband sat waiting for me fifteen feet away. Fucking bitch. I did feel good in the dress though.

We sat in a waiting room for a few minutes, while I mustered the courage to have a conversation that I really didn't want to have. I realized, as he dropped my hand when I got up, that Eric hadn't let go of it much in the in the past two weeks. I hadn't even noticed, until he wasn't holding it, which was kind of incredible, considering how hot it had been.

"You can do this. Him retiring is a better option than the alternative," He whispered in my ear. "This is how you have to be his friend right now. This is happening, with or without your involvement. Just because you're taking his job, doesn't mean he wouldn't have lost it anyway."

I nodded, trying not to tear up. "I do know that, I do."

I looked down at his hand. He was twisting his wedding band. He'd always done that. He never took it off, just twisted it around. "Tell his girlfriend to get the fuck out if she's there. You don't have to deal with her shit."

He always knew what to say. "I want some of your fajitas later. And we're getting extra guac."

"Lover, we can get whatever you want. And the sooner you do this, the sooner we can go and eat."

"And go dancing."

He nodded. "And go dancing."

Sam looked like utter shit. He had an almost grey complexion, and was still hooked up to various things. I'd discovered they had been keeping him until they could schedule a bypass, and it seemed there was a bit of a wait list. With the sweltering heat, it seemed suits were dropping like flies. He'd just finally had it about a week earlier and was scheduled to go home the day after tomorrow.

He brightened up slightly when he saw me. I was relieved he was alone, and I didn't have to give Daphne the boot.

"Hi Sook," he said, his voice rough.

I leaned over and hugged him, careful not to pull any wires out. "Sam."

And then I started to cry. I was really an emotional basket case this month. "Sookie, I'll be fine. Don't cry."

I wiped my eyes and tried to compose myself. "Oh, it's just been a bit of a rough month. How are you doing?"

He gave me a little shrug. "I've been better. I guess I wasn't as immortal as I thought I was."

Personally, or professionally, I thought to myself. "You need to take care of yourself. No more elevator."

He nodded. "I'll be racing you up the stairs before you know it. Eric get his manuscript in on time?"

I choked when he mentioned racing up the stairs. That wasn't going to be happening. "Yea. Even a week early. That's impressive for him. He's getting good at this whole revising thing."

"Third edition, huh?" He grinned. "We'll have to do a great cover. With what we're forecasting in first year sales, we can probably even do that recycled paper you're always pushing for."

When I officially took over Sam's job, everything was going on recycled paper. I was making it my first order of business. I hated that we still used pristine paper, when the recycled options were so good, and I hated that he fought me on it for so long. "Yea, I think we can do that. Sam, I heard they made you an offer."

His expression immediately darkened. "Oh? I'm surprised you heard."

I knew what he was thinking, that it wouldn't be me taking his job, because no one would think I could do it. I could see it in his eyes. He was surprised Niall had confided in me. And suddenly, I didn't so bad about what I was doing. No wonder Sam had been an advocate for me. I'd been doing his job for him. "It's a good offer. It's better than _nothing_."

He set his jaw like he did, before he wielded his power in an obnoxious way. "What are you getting at?"

I sat on the edge of the bed, and crossed my arms. "You're a smart man, and I've been doing your job for three weeks now. You figure it out."

"You're a good substitute while I'm here, Sook, but you don't know enough about anything to take my position."

I was a lot of things, but I was not stupid, and that was how he was talking to me. I was a good person, smart, and loyal to those that deserved it. I was wondering if Sam had ever fallen into that category. "That's not the feedback I've been getting."

He snorted. "Niall is just blowing smoke up your ass. You're a fool if you don't realize that."

I felt my face grow red. "I'm trying to be a friend to you, Sam. I think you should listen to what I'm saying."

He crossed his arms. "We aren't friends, Sookie. I'm your boss. I'm surprised you'd come here, and try to angle for my job. It's quite pathetic."

I stood up. "Suit yourself. See you in a few weeks."

I didn't even look at him as I walked out of the room. Eric stood as I walked by, and the two of us left without a word. We were three blocks away from the hospital before I spat out, "Fuck him."

Eric draped an arm over my shoulder. "It went that well, huh? Sam's a stubborn man. Old school, no matter how he wants people to perceive him. "

"I can't believe I was so stupid, thinking he was doing me any favours."

He gave me a half smile. "You wanted to see the best in him. It's an admirable quality. I'm sure it was what got me in the door."

I wrapped an arm around his waist. "Your huge class and textbook proposal got you in the door. You pried it open with, well, you. And I wasn't terribly wrong about you, no matter how much I wanted to keep my distance in the beginning. You're a different case."

He laughed. "I guess I didn't lead you down the garden path, and make you hoe it and plant the seeds for me."

I shook my head. "And he's going to come back for two weeks, and get canned. I already picked out a new company car. This is happening, with or without him. Niall has already created a shortlist for my replacement, for when I take _his_ job."

"He should be smart enough to know when you're offered an early retirement package to take it."

I lowered my voice. "I've seen Niall's list of complaints about him. He's got more than enough grounds to fire him like three times over. Luna and Calvin are thrilled, and Calvin's worked with him since they were in their early twenties. They started out as reps for the same press upstate."

Eric just shook his head. "He's in denial then. You'll keep me posted on how it goes?"

I felt tears well up in my eyes. "You'll be sick of hearing about it."

He shook his head. "Nah. It'll be a good distraction when I'm holed up in my bachelor apartment watching subtitled movies and eating cheese and baguette for dinner."

"Not meeting with French whores?"

His eyes smiled at me, but his expression was dead serious. "Well maybe some. You know I'm a professional though, and terrified of whores on a personal level."

That was true. He'd stopped meeting with whores a while ago, after the whole pimp abandoned child thing. He'd changed since we had the kids. A lot. "I can't believe he reacted like that. What a man baby."

He squeezed my shoulder as we walked. "Fuck him. Let's go get some Mexican."

I resisted the urge to completely eat my face off so I'd be able to dance later, but caved when I saw the enchiladas at the table next to us just as I was about to order a salad. We both picked off each other's plates, as was our custom.

After a bit of digestion and reminiscing about previous similar dates, we headed over to Eric's salsa bar. They knew us by name, because we'd been quazi regulars for so long. It was funny, how life seemed to get away from me sometimes as I got a bit older. When I looked at Max sometimes, it blew my mind that it had been seven years since he'd been the tiny baby that I'd been both terrified and thrilled to meet.

Our dancing skills had much improved since those early days, and I had a much nicer pair of dancing shoes stowed in my bag, thanks to Pam. She bought me ridiculously impractical shoes for most holidays, and I rarely got the opportunity to wear most of them because I did so much running around.

Making an appearance today? The most practical ones she'd ever bought me. Black patent Marc Jacobs Mary Jane wedges. My favourite pair of the moment. I usually danced in heels, but I knew I'd be able to dance longer in wedges, and I wanted to stay for a while, since this was the last time we were going to do this for a bit.

Salsa with Eric was seduction at its purest. But then again, whether I had realized it or not the first night we'd come here, it always had been. Eric knew exactly what he was doing, when it came to seduction anyway.

"You know I love that dress," he practically purred in my ear, as we started.

I raised an eyebrow. "I do know."

"What's underneath?" His purr became a bit of a growl.

I gave him a little shrug, and a knowing look. "You'll have to wait and see."

"And that's half the fun. Spending the next few hours trying to figure it out."

I smiled, knowing he wouldn't be able to guess, because I'd bought something new, because I knew something that he likely didn't. "This might be it for you and I, old friend. I'm getting my period tomorrow or the next day." Ever since I'd gone off the pill when he'd gotten snipped, I had terrible cramps. Sex did not happen that week.

He wasn't deterred. "Well that's unfortunate. We'll have to make tonight one for the books."

I smiled, as he pressed himself against me. "We've had a lot of nights for the books over the past few weeks."

He shook his head, his eyes a little sad. "Not enough, Lover. I'm really not sure what I'm going to do without you."

I patted his chest. "You'll be fine. You've gone a few months before. Remember when I had Max and Ce?"

His eyes met mine. It was an intensely emotional moment before he spoke. "I'm not talking about sex."

I knew he hadn't been, and it broke my heart. I knew my husband needed and loved me, even if he wasn't a great romantic who verbally sang my praises on a daily basis. "I'm not going anywhere. I'll still be here if you need me for anything. And you can always come home if it's too bad. We'll figure something out, and besides, I'm making six figures now. First time ever."

He smiled, but his eyes were so sad. "You'll make sure Ceci doesn't forget about me?"

I laid my head on his chest. "Are you seriously worried about that? It's not like we live in the days of letter writing and the pony express. You'll talk to her every day. More than once, if you want. We'll rack up the world's largest long distance bills. And you're her dad. She's not going to forget about you."

"I'm going to get Appius fired for this," he whispered. "It's absolute bullshit to expect tenure faculty to do this."

I shook my head at him, a small smile on my face. "I'm not at all surprised. And you're right. And you're so hot when you're scheming."

"Remember when I fucked Clancy over?"

"And then we fucked in that hotel?"

He sighed. "Yea. That was great." So much of that hadn't been great. The hotel bit had been the one positive memory out of all of that.

"I'll meet you at the airport when you come back in a trench coat." I waggled my eyebrows at him. "Think about that for four months."

He groaned slightly. "Maybe when I come back for Thanksgiving. It might be a bit cold for a trench in December. I'll be back for our fuckaversary though."

I loved Eric's one track mind sometimes. "And you'll have four months to plan it, since it's your year to make arrangements."

"It'll be the best one yet, Lover. Mark my words," he whispered seductively in my ear, as he dipped me.

When we made it home a few hours later and after we relieved Stella and Johan of their babysitting duties, it was mere minutes before we'd dropped our clothes, and I was looking Eric in the eye, as I straddled his lap on the couch. I loved this position, because of the intimacy of the eye contact we had. And because it was easy to cover up with a blanket in case of a child invasion. It was risky, being here on the couch, but at that point, neither of us cared. The kids had gone to bed hours earlier. It felt incredible, but it was sex, with someone that knew my body almost as well as I did. Everything felt incredible.

I knew him too, and if I wanted to finish him, I could do it in a matter of minutes. But tonight, that wasn't what I wanted at all.

I did get my period the next afternoon, much to my chagrin.

The next week, we really made it a priority to be a family, and do family things. I made a point of being home by 5:30 p.m, and we all had dinner and walked Lily every night. Max was hyper aware of what was going on, and he usually had the same bothered look in his eyes that his dad had taken on, which didn't make things easier.

Eric and the kids spent a few days interviewing nannies, because it was obvious when we thought about it that we were going to need a bit of help with me working. We had a regular babysitter for evenings when we went out now and then, and Pam and Stella helped out a lot normally, but Eric was also around quite a bit through the week. Stella had offered to help out next week before she went back to school to 'break the nanny in', as she'd so aptly called it. Eric, with help from Max, and Ceci, sort of, had narrowed it down to one woman that they all seemed to adore. I met her on Friday for coffee; the day before Eric flew out. She came with impeccable references, having nannied for some of Eric's colleagues at NYU, and for someone that Bill worked with at Columbia.

I liked her, after first feeling put off that Eric would choose someone so stunning. She was almost six feet, with bright blue eyes, and the most gorgeous dark brown hair I'd ever seen. When I thought about it though, he wasn't going to pick someone to watch our kids based on appearances, and he wasn't going to be around to gawk at her, so I didn't really care. After five minutes, I realized that Claudine Crane was going to be my child-rearing saviour while he was gone. She was articulate, had all the right answers, even when I didn't know what they were, and was able to stay late on a whim if I needed her. I hired her on the spot, to start on Wednesday. That gave Stel two days to break her in.

After going through a very long list of things he needed to take with him and zipping up the two bound-to-be-oversized suitcases he bought, we kind of just looked at each other for a few minutes, before climbing into bed. It all felt so terribly final.

"This is it, huh?" I said, trying to smile.

He shrugged. "For now. No goodbyes. I don't want to hear it."

It was going to be hard for him, being alone. I made an offer that I'd made most nights that week. "Do you want me to..."

He shook his head, just like he had all the other nights. "I'm not really in the mood. Thanks, though."

I wasn't really in the mood either, if I was being honest. I would have done it though, if I thought it would make him feel a bit better about leaving. Instead, I tucked my head in under his arm and wrapped my arms around his chest. "You're rarely not in the mood."

He chuckled. "If you were into it, I'd be into it. I know you're crampy. I saw you take some Motrin with dinner. I'd rather lay here like this though anyway. I've had sex with a lot of people over the years; you're the only one I ever loved doing this with. I'll miss this more than sex."

I wiped my eyes. Sometimes he came out with these things that just turned me into a sobbing ball of mush. "Shit, Eric."

He thumbed away my tears. "Sorry. Please don't cry. I know I sound like a needy chick. I don't want you to cry." He tilted my head so I was looking at him. "I guess I should be happy that you won't be out looking for professors, in case someone else comes around and catches your eye while I'm not around to drag it back towards me."

I put on a smile. "Don't be an idiot. After you and Bill, I'd never date another professor again. You're a high maintenance breed."

We both slept quite fitfully that night, tossing and turning, getting up to use the washroom a couple of times each.

Before I knew it, it was the morning of day zero, and we were forced to leave our bed for the last time in a while. Eric said his goodbye to the kids at home, because we'd agreed that we didn't want them to see me upset, and I knew I was going to be upset. He didn't cry really, well, not like I cried sometimes, with the sobs and the heaving, but his eyes were certainly wet. He had a bit of a sad goodbye to Stella on our way out the door as well, which was kind of extraordinary in a way, considering that it was only four months, and they hadn't known each other for the first seventeen years of her life. I didn't think he was ever going to let her go, but eventually he did, before whispering something in her ear in Swedish which involved my name, and to which she replied, "Of course, Dad."

Pam accompanied us to the airport, and while at first I was slightly irritated at her intrusion, I was really grateful for it when she hauled my sobby ass to the car after we said what must have been the longest goodbye in the history of goodbyes.

"Call when you get in?" I sobbed into his chest.

"Of course, and I'll call you when the kids go to bed too." He squeezed me hard. "I'm just going to go. I just need to go."

I nodded, understanding what he meant. It wasn't doing either of us any good prolonging this any longer when we both knew what was going. "I'll talk to you in a bit."

He nodded, his eyes still red. They'd been red all day. "Take the kids out for ice cream or something."

"I will."

We both kind of just turned and walked away, and when I made my way to Pam, she gave me a sympathetic smile. "You look like shit."

"Thanks, Pam."

She linked her arm with mine, and we started for the parking garage at JFK. "You'll be fine. If anyone was ever going to be fine, it's you guys. Four months is nothing for you guys."

I choked out, "It doesn't feel like nothing now though."

Pam sighed and shoved her Chanel glasses over my teary eyes. "You can cry in the car. We're going to get you a new vibrator."


	5. Each Coming Night

**So I broke down and started a playlist, after finding the perfect Iron and Wine song for this chapter. You can find it here: playlist (DOT) com (SLASH) playlist (SLASH)21434673419 , just take out the spaces and put the punctuation in instead of the words**

**Anyway, I know I say this, but thanks so much for reading. I know I'm crap at replying to reviews, but honestly, there aren't enough hours in the day. That's really what it comes down to. I hope you don't think they aren't appreciated, because you couldn't be further from the truth if so. They really mean a lot. Like I said before, if I someday have something written ahead on this story, I'll happily tease you, but I really just end up plugging these out in a couple of hours and posting them. **

**And I think when you finish this one, you'll be glad I'm writing the next chapter instead of replying ;).**

**Also, if you need me to rub your back, or pet your head****, and tell you it'll all be okay ****after you're finished the chapter****, drop me a note.  
**

* * *

**Eric**

I'd gotten so little sleep the night before that I was out about ten minutes after we took off. I woke when the flight attendant came by with dinner and for part of some stupid comedy about some woman that didn't know her husband was a bounty hunter, while I drank some scotch, and that was it.

When I landed in Paris, it was about one in the morning, and about seven in the evening in New York. I had loved Paris when I was younger, probably because it had a tendency to be hedonistic and fun, but really, even after eight hours, I was starting to feel lonely.

The apartment that Appius' contact had rented for me was in one of the more liberal areas of the city, which, when you were talking France, was very liberal. Le Marais was home to a number of art galleries, and a huge part of the city's gay community, as well as the Chinese and Jewish population. I'd been pleased with the location from a research perspective, because it was quite diverse, and not too stuffy.

The cab dropped me off in front of an very grand home that had been converted into tiny apartments. I made my way up two flights of stairs, after picking up a key from the caretaker.

Walking into the apartment alone was a real bummer, because it was a space I knew Sookie would have adored. It was a bit stark, but very French, with toile wallpaper, with red pastoral scenes on it. The bed was very huge, very grand, with an elaborate gold headboard, and a blue bedspread. The apartment had a couch, and chair, a small kitchen table, and a very tiny area to cook in. There were two windows, one in the main part of the space, and the other in the bathroom, which was tiny, and contained a shower I figured I would barely fit into. I decided that I'd have to make a point of getting out a lot, because sitting here alone was going to be a bit depressing. When I'd brushed my teeth and washed my face, I set up my computer, pleased that the Wifi I'd demanded had been set up, and Skyped my family.

They'd been expecting me, it seemed, because Sookie answered on the first annoying Skype ring, and I instantly relaxed when I saw her and Ceci's smiling faces.

She winked at me and then pointed at the screen. "Look Ce, there's Dad."

Ceci narrowed her eyes at me. "Where are you?"

"Across the ocean Baby, in Paris. I miss you."

She smiled brightly. "Oh. Is Lily with you?"

Sookie laughed. "Lil is upstairs with your brother. Dad's a bit further away than that."

I chuckled at them. They looked so much alike sometimes it wasn't funny. "Where's Max?"

Sookie gave me a half smile. "He doesn't really feel like talking right now. Maybe tomorrow."

My heart sank a bit. "Oh."

She looked at me with knowing eyes. "He's okay, just reading a bit. Don't take it personally."

It was hard not to. "Tell him I love him, will you?"

She nodded. "Are you going to bed? It must be late there."

I shook my head. "I slept on the plane for ages. Call me back when you get them to bed, will you? Ce, are you being a good girl for Mom?"

She shook her head vigourously. "I helped Stella do laundry earlier. And I ate my peas."

"That's my girl. Are you excited to see Claudine on Wednesday?" I hoped to hell Claudine worked out. She was perfect it seemed, which kind of worried me in an odd way. I hoped I hadn't missed something, but Sookie had loved her too. If we needed someone in a pinch in case it didn't work out, Stella had promised to help out, however we needed her.

"Yes!" she squealed. "I like her, Daddy." Ceci had reacted very well to her. She didn't like everyone either, so I paid attention to that.

"I know you do, Baby. Be a good girl for Mom when it's bedtime, okay?"

She rolled her eyes at me, a small smile on her face."Yes, Dad."

"And I love you."

"Love you too." She giggled, before blowing me kisses. She usually blew kisses when she wanted up for real kisses. I desperately wished I was there to give them to her.

Sookie sighed, looking tired. "I'll call you in two hours?"

I smiled at her. "I'll be here."

I unpacked, sticking up the pictures of home I'd brought on the small fridge and the full-length mirror on the front door, and put my clothes in the one closet. The place was probably about four hundred square feet, huge by Paris standards, but tiny compared to home. I'd just undressed and crawled into bed to begin watching Mad Men, which Stella had bought pirated for me in Chinatown as a goodbye present, when my computer rang again. I smiled, as I opened the window to see Sookie sitting in our bed, wearing my old Columbia t-shirt.

"Hello again." She smiled, looking a bit sleepy. "How's the apartment?"

"It's very you, oddly enough." I slowly rotated the laptop so she could see it. "We'd never be able to shower together here though. I don't even know how I'm going to shower here."

"I'd make a stinky French joke, but I'm not that rude." She giggled. "Kids went to bed fine. Max says he'll talk to you tomorrow. He said he didn't have anything to say, so I didn't push it."

"I can't believe how much I miss you guys already." I looked down when I saw tears well up in her eyes. We had to stop doing this, or it was going to make time go even slower, if that was possible.

She wiped her eyes, and I could tell she was getting a grip on herself. She was going at doing that. "That's because you're looking ahead on four months, Eric. Let's just stop doing that until November, okay? We'll just go one day at a time here."

She was right. I knew she was. "Okay. We'll do that. Tell me about your day then."

She started giggling, and it took her ages to get ahold of herself. "So, I was pretty upset when we left you at the airport, so Pam decided that we should get drunk off mimosas at ten in the morning and go scope out vibrators."

I chuckled at her. "You have a vibrator." I'd bought it for her when she'd gone on her first conference after Ceci was born, after spending far too much time scouring the internet and reading reviews. It was kind of a joke, but we'd played with it a bit together, but it wasn't on regular rotation or anything. We kind of just liked having sex with each other it seemed.

When we were in the same city, anyway.

She shrugged. "Apparently, I should have more than one, according to Pam. She said they have different purposes. There's really a lot of them out there. When you get back, we're going to the Pleasure Chest. You'd lose it."

"How so?"

She shook her head. "Imagine if you will, a classy world of sex toys. There's everything. It's the store that was on Sex and The City, you know, when Charlotte bought the rabbit. How did we never go there?"

I shrugged. "No idea. But we'll go when I'm back. Let me see what you got."

She blushed deliciously. "I have to say, I'm a bit weirded out by the fact that your sister knows how large you are."

My lips curled up, imagining that conversation. "We lived together for years on and off. You know how much I'm naked. We ran into each other now and then. I know she's about a b-cup too."

"But hard, Eric?"

I groaned, thinking back on how my sister knew _that_. "Pam has boundary issues, like the rest of us do too. You know that. It was only once, and I think it freaked the hell out of her. We both started locking doors after that." When we were fucking, anyway. When I thought back on it, I couldn't even remember who'd been blowing me, but I'd never forget the look on Pam's face when she'd stumbled into my bedroom in California by mistake with that awfully androgynous young man, and caught me mid orgasm.

Awkward didn't even begin to cover it.

"I don't want to know. Just a minute though, I'll get it." She sat the laptop down on the bed, in just the right position for me to get a glimpse of a pair of cotton panties under my t-shirt, and Lily tucked in under the blanket like she did when it was just one of us in the bed, her little cute head perked up from hearing my voice. She always pawed at the blankets until you let her under. This Skype stuff wasn't so bad.

Then again, it was only night one.

And my son had refused to talk to me. We'd had a lot of conversations, Max and I about me going, and I knew he was going to take it hard. He really thought it was something he'd done, something he could fix, something he could say to make me stay. He kept making promises, like that he'd make his bed every day, and walk Lily all by himself, and do the dishes. Every promise was more heartbreaking than the last. He and I would have to do something really great when I got back. Maybe I'd teach him to skate, or we'd go ice fishing upstate for a weekend. Alcide had him really into fishing lately.

Sookie popped back into the frame a minute later, holding something that looked more like a sculpture than a sex toy. "It's kind of a weird shape, but the lady assured me that it was amazing. I figured I could hide it somewhere I could reach, since I need a step stool to get the other one."

We'd hidden it well, partly because it was very phallic, and because Stella was a huge snoop. Not that it mattered if she found it, but Sookie didn't want to have that conversation with the two of us. I'd have it, Stella would have it, but Sookie wanted no part in it. I cocked my head to look at it. "I can see how that would work."

She nodded, turning it over in her hands. "It came with elaborate instructions."

"You'll have to show me sometime."

She nodded, a huge smile on her face as she set it on the nightstand. "There may be a Fleshlight on it's way to you. I tried to tell Pam that that was stupid, but she wasn't having it."

"My cock won't fit in one of those. Not comfortably anyway."

She kept on smiling. "They make a larger sized one. That's what you're getting. Hence the awkward cock size conversation. Pam managed to freak the Pleasure Chest girl out. I feel like that was no small feat. Be happy you aren't getting the vampire teeth one. Pam wanted to get that one. The lady said that it was a best seller since Twilight and that vampire show on HBO."

"It's going in the garbage when it gets here, unless I can find someone to re-gift it to. I'm not sticking my cock in a rubber lined can."

She snorted. "I know that, and I told Pam to save her money, or send you some lubricant or something, but she was so engrossed with the Fleshlights. Neither of us had even heard of them before. I think they're kind of gross. I think Alcide is getting one for Christmas."

I rolled my eyes at Pam's weird shopping addiction. "Alcide has threesomes like four times a month. What the hell does he need a Fleshlight for?"

"I told her she was forbidden from buying our son one when he hits puberty. It may have been the mimosas talking at that point though."

"So it wasn't a terrible day?"

"She bought me a lovely new pair of shoes, so it wasn't a total wash. I think we're going to try and set up a bi-weekly dinner date while you're gone."

I smiled. Pam had promised me she'd check in, and report back if there was anything I needed to know. Sookie tried too hard to be strong sometimes, and had a hard time admitting defeat. She'd tell me if there were things I needed to know, but not the things she'd tell Pam I figured. "So what are you guys doing tomorrow?" I knew she'd have something planned. As easy as it was to mope, Sookie was far from that kind of mom. She'd have the kids out and their little minds so occupied that they'd crash by seven, if I knew her.

She smiled. "I was thinking the zoo at Central Park. We haven't been in a while. I might ask Bill to come. I haven't seen him in a while."

Bill. I'm sure he'd have lots to say about me leaving, not all of it negative. We'd buried the hatchet long ago and if anyone understood the hoops that academics were forced to jump through from time to time it was Bill. "With Charlie and Zoey?"

She nodded. "Yea. Selah too if she's interested, which she probably won't be. She'll probably see the chance for an afternoon off and get on it like you on that Fleshlight in a few weeks."

I smirked at her words. "Or you on that vibrator?"

She nodded, a grin on her face. "Exactly."

I watched her face as she yawned a little. "Tired?"

"Yea. Getting drunk before noon will do that to you. The bed is so big without you." She brought her eyes up to meet mine. "And not in a good way."

I looked at her, a pit in my stomach at the idea of waking up with her hair tickling my face. "This one too. This would be so much fun with you. We could walk around, eat, drink wine, look at art, fuck in the afternoon. It would be a great vacation."

She smiled, wiping her eyes. "Think of me there with you, and I'll think about you here. I know this is something people say, but it'll be over before we know it." She looked up for a minute, thinking. "Remember when Ce fell in the Hamptons and got that huge bruise on her face, and we were worried that someone was going to think we abused her? That was four months ago, and it seems like yesterday."

We'd been both hysterical and terrified over that. "That's true. You're so smart."

"I'm a mom. I'm good at convincing people of things. Eat your veggies while you're there. I don't want you coming back looking like Sam." She grinned. "As if you'd ever look like Sam. Get some sleep, and we'll talk tomorrow."

I nodded. I was absolutely ready to sleep again. "Sounds good. I love you, so much."

"I love you too. Good night Lover." She giggled, borrowing my moniker for her.

I slept like the dead, and woke up starving. Not really caring what Parisians thought of me on a Sunday afternoon, I pulled on a pair of tattered jeans and a t-shirt, unprepared for the August heat that hit me like a wall when I walked outside in search of sustenance.

I liked Paris, I did. As much as I would have liked anywhere at that point. I found a tiny cafe about five blocks from my apartment, and sat down with a coffee and a croissant and some cheese, pulled my sunglasses over my eyes and people watched for a few hours.

I'd always liked watching people, but it was different, being here, and not looking for someone to pick up, as I had when I'd spent some time here in a lost summer when I was in my twenties. I noticed people I wouldn't have then, like an elderly man helping his wife along the cobblestone streets, and two pre-teens holding hands. People came in pairs quite often, like matched set, salt and pepper shakers, hands and feet, peanut butter and jelly. Most pairs fit together in a way, even if outwardly they had nothing in common. There was always a look exchanged, similar posture, a forward motion shared. It was beautiful, in a way, the symmetry of couples. Old, new, young, experienced, it didn't much matter. The feeling one got from looking at people who experienced genuine affection for one another was the same.

And there were those couples that stood out as far from symmetrical. The man who had obviously picked up an escort, and was walking several steps behind her, the two slim boys obviously closeted but very much interested in one another, their hands brushing as they walked around, feeling out their environment. They'd be more likely to turn into a couple than the suit and the escort. The symmetry was already developing.

The singles stood out as well, looking around, glancing from face to face, looking for, trying desperately even, to make a connection with a stranger on the street, someone that would give some sort of meaning to their unfulfilled lives. Because that's what society and nature told them; that he or she was out there, and resisting it was futile.

As someone that resisted for years, I now knew that to be true. Coupling was a necessary part of life. It ensured the continuation of the species.

And when it was right, it felt so fucking right.

I thought about what she'd said, to think about her here with me, and I knew we'd be doing much the same thing I was doing now, except instead of looking at everyone around me, I'd be looking at her. We'd be one of the couples I'd been watching. I'd be memorizing her smile lines, the small freckle by her lip, the scar on her forehead, all for the millionth time. I knew her face better than the back of my hand.

The kids were an extension of both of us, their little faces a perfect blend of our features, and their personalities teetering back and forth between her and I, before they'd eventually settle somewhere in the middle. I missed them after a day, like I always did when I was away, knowing that I was missing something, even if it was mundane.

Finally, as the afternoon started to turn into evening, and people started favouring wine over coffee, I decided to head back and start planning my human sexuality course, Sorbonne style. I'd given myself three days before class stated to acclimate to the time difference and the loneliness, before I had to put on my American professor face, which was likely to be arrogant, and charismatic, all at the same time. That was usually what I went for, especially with introductory classes.

I unlocked the front door and made my way back up to my apartment, trying to think of the time difference and wondering if they'd be back from the zoo yet.

As I turned the corner, I almost bumped smack into a slim brunette leaving a note for someone.

In front of my unit.

I stood back, leaving her room to escape without awkwardness. "Sorry, I think you're too late. The person you're leaving that for is gone. I just moved in yesterday."

She whipped around, her eyes wide. "Eric?"

And with that, I was wrapped up in a vaguely familiar, bone crushing hug.

Dawn.

* * *

******Side note. Dawn is new. You don't have to hunt for her in the other stories.*******


	6. Miss You

**So everyone is worried about Dawn? You have that little faith in Professor Sex? That kind of breaks my heart! Thanks so much for reading, and keep the great comments coming! **

**Also, playlist link is on the last chapter if you're interested.  
**

* * *

**Eric**

Dawn, worst lay of my entire life, but probably the best female friend I'd ever had was standing at my door.

Wow. What were the odds of that?

I hugged her back. I'd never had so little sexual chemistry with anyone, and I realized, as we hugged that I still didn't, despite the fact that she was gorgeous.

I'd met Dawn a year into my PhD at UCLA. She was studying psychology too, specializing, in, well, oddly enough, sex. We had the same adviser.

Of course, I'd made it my mission to get in her pants from day one.

**Fourteen years earlier...**

"Just sleep with me Dawn. You won't regret it," I whispered across the library table. "I'm huge, and I've been told I'm very good at what I do."

She crossed her arms and looked at me, irritated, but with a little smirk hidden under the surface. "Will you stop bugging me about it if we just do it so we can get some serious work done?"

I sat up and nodded, with a smirk of my own. "Of course."

She stood up, stuffing her copy of the Kama Sutra in her bag. "Then meet me at my place in a couple of hours. You're bringing the condoms, and if I don't get off first, I'm never fucking you again."

I could see to that. "Fine."

Despite our best efforts, four hours later, neither of us had gotten off. Finally, she just pulled herself off me, and glared. "What the fuck?"

"Why is it so bad?" I whispered, pulling myself against the headboard, irritated with my cock.

She crossed her arms over her lacklustre chest. Why the hell did I think it was lacklustre? It was proportional, nice nipples. She looked at me critically. "Are you gay? Like, do you think you could be in denial?"

I shook my head, looking down at my now flaccid cock with shame. "No. If I was going to be gay, I'd just be gay. I'm a sex researcher. What about you?"

"Yep, I'm a sex researcher too, remember? While I don't mind a bit of pussy from time to time, women are fucking impossible. If the bible thumpers were looking for a legitimate way to scare people straight, they should do an ad with a jumbo box of tampons that said 'Periods Sync'. That's all they'd need."

I shook my head, really quite confused. "Why can't we just have sex and get off? I've been in this state of semi hard for like an hour now. This has never happened before."

We both sat there pondering it. Finally, Dawn spoke. "Are we tired? I'd say I'm not in the mood, but I'm always in the mood. I'm at my sexual peak. I could have sex like several times a day right now, and I'm getting my period next week, so I'm horny as shit, or I thought I was, anyway."

I sighed. "Do you want to sleep on it, maybe try again tomorrow?"

She nodded. "Yea, maybe we should do that. Same time tomorrow?"

"Sure."

Five times later, we agreed never to try again, and never to speak of the sex we had. It was just that terrible. One bright spot though, was that she figured out what to do her PhD thesis on.

Sexual chemistry.

The other bright spot was that for the first time, I actually had a female friend. One that I didn't want to fuck.

Ever again.

We stayed in touch for a bit when I was in New York and she was in LA, but as time went on, we drifted apart.

One thing was sure though. If anyone was ever going to give me a run for my money when it came to being successful, it was Dawn. She was absolutely brilliant.

And now she was at the Sorbonne. In hindsight, I should have done a quick department check to see if anyone I knew was here, but I'd been so distracted at the thought of leaving that I hadn't bothered.

We sat down, her on the couch, and me on on of the tiny kitchen chairs while the water boiled for tea. "I'd offer you wine, but I haven't gone grocery shopping yet. What are you doing here? And how did you know I was here?"

She snorted. "Because Eric Northman, I've kept very close tabs on you for all these years, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to swoop in for the kill." She looked at me deadpan. "I teach here. You took my intro class over, and I got stuck with Psyc 101. I got stuck running around finding you an apartment two weeks ago, because I'm co-chair and apparently that's part of my job."

She still had that Texas drawl. It was familiar, and kind of nice. "Oh. Sorry about the intro class. Good apartment though."

She shrugged. "I thought it might get you laid. You get the great opportunity to come to Paris on a whim, and I get to teach a bunch of disinterested seventeen year olds. I think I must have done something terrible in a past life." Her eyes went wide, as she noticed my ring, which I'd been absently twisting. "_You're_ married? Seriously?"

My eyes went to her ring, which was absolutely massive. "I see you are too. Seriously?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yea. That's how I ended up here. I followed the best sex of my life from Texas, and eight years later, he finally decided to propose. But back to you. What?"

I got up and pulled a picture of Sookie and the kids from the summer in the Hamptons off the fridge and handed it to her. "She's the editor on my textbook." And the love of my life. I smiled just thinking about her.

Dawn took the picture and held it between her hands, a huge smile on her face. "And she lets you around her nieces and nephews? Doesn't she know what a pervert you are?"

I snorted at her. "Those are _my_ kids, Max and Ceci."

She held it a little closer. "Wow. They really are. I must say, Eric Northman, you've blown my mind."

I got up and filled the teapot. "What about you? Kids?"

She laughed. "No, we have a French Bulldog and a life. Hoyt travels for work a lot, and we despise children."

She handed me the picture back. "They're kind of the orgasm of life, Dawn. I have to admit, I had a time when I was skeptical, but they're really amazing."

"Well you're narcissistic, so children are a natural progression for you I suppose. The wife though, I'm surprised probably most at that." She smiled, as I handed her a cup of tea.

I sipped mine. It was very English, which was kind of odd, considering where we were. "It's been almost eight years. I didn't want to come here. I'm going to miss so much in four months."

Dawn's jaw dropped. "That's not what we were told."

We kind of looked at each other for a minute. "What were you told?"

"That you demanded a semester abroad, and because you're such a big deal, they had to give it to you."

I shook my head. "Not even close. The head of my department decided that everyone with tenure needed more international experience. It was mandatory, and I was told if I went now, then I could be chair in the spring. Then I can actually see my kids grow up a bit."

She shook her head. "It's amazing how priorities change. I assumed you were the same old demanding Eric, tired of American girls and wanting to get some French tail. I was actually thinking that some things never changed."

I gave her a smile. "A lot of things change."

She clasped her hands together in her lap. "You'll have to have dinner with me and Hoyt sometime. Maybe next week."

I nodded. "I'd like that. It's nice to know someone here. What does Hoyt do?"

Her mouth turned up into a little smile as she thought about him. "Art dealer. We grew up ten minutes from one another, but his mother is Parisian. How strange is that?"

"In smalltown Texas?"

She laughed. "I know, right?"

"My wife is from Louisiana. Her drawl is a little different from yours."

Dawn grinned at me. "Your face lights up when you talk about her."

"Yours with this Hoyt fellow, too."

She nodded. "He's a good man. One of a kind, really. On that note though, I should get back to him."

I watched as she pulled her slim frame up off the tiny couch. "Will I see you at work?"

She picked up her purse. "We're sharing an office, asshole. We all share a giant office."

"How European." I smirked. "Until tomorrow then."

**Sookie**

I met Bill outside the polar bear cages, looking more relaxed than I'd seen him in a while, despite the fact that Charlie and Zoey were practically dancing for his attention, and as expected, Selah had skipped out. Max and Ceci were far more subdued, Ceci's hand in mine and Max on my other side. At seven, we didn't hold hands any more. It wasn't cool to hold your mom's hand.

I greeted Bill with a hug. "Hey you."

He nodded. "Hey yourself. So Paris, huh?"

I punched him in the arm, as he wiggled his eyebrows. "I'm sure his Paris will be very different than our Paris. For starters, he planned his trip."

He pulled back, feigning stung. "Ouch. And I never surprised you with anything again."

I snorted. "Oh yea. Nothing. Ever. Anyway, yea, he left yesterday morning early. I think he'll be back for Thanksgiving."

"They're assholes for making him do that," Bill mumbled. He was good about watching his language. Not that he was a big swearer anyway. "Being a professor should be like any other job, where you go, do your time, and that's that. No crazy trips and wild expectations, especially once you have tenure. They're lucky he didn't tell them to pound sand and start applying to other schools."

"He wants to be Chair, so he can work regular hours. He was promised that if he does this. Max is kind of mad at him I think."

Bill glanced at Max. "Let me talk to him about that. Fathers and sons are weird." He shook his head. "He should have been head of that department by now."

I smiled at Bill's affinity for my husband. Who would have thought he'd ever be putting in a good word in for him with our seven year old? How times had changed. "I'm sure that's the next step."

He shook his head, a small smile on his face since he knew a bit about how Eric's revenge mind worked. "I'm sure it is."

We had a nice afternoon, he and I with the kids. It was interesting to think about how far we'd come. I told him about work, and he listened intently, which was really nice too. I was happy that he was so into Selah, even though I didn't really like her, and her kids seemed pretty into him, as was Max. I noticed him pull him aside a few minutes before we went our separate ways, and give him a 'Your dad didn't want to go, and be strong for your mother' chat.

I hoped that would be what it took for him to talk to Eric on Skype later tonight. I didn't think he'd handle another night of rejection very well. Max had always been quite close to Bill in his own way, especially with everything that happened with Mira, so I hoped he'd listen to him. He was the first kid Bill ever liked.

We hugged goodbye at the southwest corner of the park. "It'll be fine Sook. I never thought I'd be saying this, but he's a good man, when it comes to you anyway. And the work stuff? That's child's play for you. You're like a legend in this town." He smiled warmly.

Bill always knew how to make me feel better about things in a few words. That had never changed. "I'll have you guys over for dinner sometime. Well, we'll order pizza." Four kids was too many kids to try and get to do anything but eat pizza orderly. We usually stuck them in the back yard with paper plates to minimize mess.

He nodded. "I'll be in touch. Call if you need anything. I've got a light courseload this term. Next term is hell, but this term is two classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays."

"I'll keep that in mind. Want to edit a philosophy reader yet?"

He tapped his chin. "Maybe. Send me an email and we'll have coffee on your press."

I shrugged. "I don't really do that anymore."

He shook his head, a smile on his face. "Then I'm not interested."

"I'll email you."

I threw together some butter chicken for the kids, after picking up some Naan bread on the way home. They were being surprisingly well behaved, but then again Max always was, and I suspected Ceci acted up for Eric a lot of the time because she liked the attention, like the little Northman she was. Also, both of them were a bit weird with Eric gone, so that may have had something to do with it. Both kids ate all their dinner after the day spent walking outside, and curled up in front of Up afterwards.

I took a minute to breathe. I wasn't looking forward to work tomorrow, especially since it was seven days until Sam was scheduled to come back. Also, Niall's replacement for me had arrived, and was going to be in checking things out, under the guise that was going to be an acquisitions editor, instead of their boss. I hated training people. Hated it.

We talked to Eric around six our time, which was midnight his. Figuring out this time difference thing was going to be a challenge. Luckily, as he told me, he'd be teaching afternoon and evening classes, so being up a bit late wasn't a problem on top of everything else.

I managed to convince Max to Skype with him too, and I left the room but stayed within earshot.

Eric tried to put on a perky voice. "Hey, Max."

I didn't have to see Max to know that his jaw was set in that way that he did it when he was upset. "Hi Dad."

I could hear the strain in Eric's voice. "How was the zoo?"

"Okay."

How much could you really push a seven year old? "I miss you, buddy."

I heard Max's voice crack a bit. "I wish you didn't go."

And then Eric's sigh. "Max, you have no idea how much I wish that too. We just have to get through this, though, and then I'll be back, and everything will go back to how it was."

"It's a long time, Dad."

"I'm still here if you need me," Eric choked. "I'm sorry I'm not really there."

"It's okay. Bill says that you're doing this for us, whatever that means."

Eric's voice lightened up a bit. "Bill said that?"

Max's did too, and I breathed a sigh of relief. "He said I have to take care of Mom. That I'm the man while you're gone."

"I already told you that."

"Well Bill said it too." He smiled at me, as I poked my head around the corner. "Will you bring be back something cool?"

"Sure. What do you want?"

Max tapped his chin. "French fries?"

He laughed. "I can probably do better than French fries. Grab your Mom will you, and we'll talk tomorrow. Don't let Ceci forget about me."

"She can't even remember to brush her teeth," Max giggled. "But I'll tell her, and I'll tickle her for you."

I could hear the smile in his voice. "Thanks buddy."

I slid in front of the laptop a minute, unable to control the smile that came over my face when I saw him. "Hey you."

A big grin came over his face. "You looked tanned. Good day with Bill?"

I nodded. "Yea, he was really nice about you going actually. Said that NYU sucked, everything I wanted to hear."

Eric nodded. "Good. So, I had an odd visitor today. Have I ever mentioned Dawn? Dawn Green?"

I thought about it. "I don't think so. Dawn?" He hadn't even been there a day and ex girlfriends were coming out of the woodwork? I tried hard to keep from fuming at something I had no control over.

He narrowed his eyes at me. "Worst sex of my life? It never came up?"

Now that was ringing a bell. A wonderful, wonderful bell, when compared to the idea that Eric had met up with an old lover that he enjoyed fucking. "Wait. Maybe. Refresh my memory."

"We were PhD candidates at UCLA together. Had terrible, terrible sex, before realizing we had no chemistry. We had the same advisor. I think you've seen pictures of her. Long dark hair, tall."

"Gorgeous?"

He put his finger up. "Ah, but no sexual chemistry. And we tried. God, did we try." He shook his head. "Anyway, she's here. I took over a couple of her classes. She came by to leave me directions for Wednesday."

I raised my eyebrows. "Oh yea? How's she look?"

Eric smiled at me goofily. "Happily married, just like me. Please don't be like that."

I was being silly. He had lots of female colleagues. Probably lots of female colleagues that he'd slept with as well. "I won't be. I trust you."

He smirked at me. "And if I was going to cheat Lover, it wouldn't be with someone that felt like I was fucking an aunt. Not that I'm going to cheat, especially with that Fleshlight on the way."

I smiled, and then laughed a bit, thinking of him with the Fleshlight. At least we were still laughing. "Do you want to try, well, you know, later?"

He nodded. "Yes. I do. Call when you can. I'll be around, getting my class stuff sorted out."

"Let me bathe the kids, and get them in bed, and I'll be right with you, well, in a couple of hours anyway."

Because I'd tuckered the kids out at the park, they were in bed after a story or two. I told Max I'd drive him to school while Eric was gone whenever I could, and Stella had promised to be here by 7:30 a.m. so I could drop him off and get to work by 8:30 a.m..

After pouring myself a glass of wine, I curled up in bed with my laptop and called Eric back. I smiled when he accepted the call, shirtless and ready to go.

He chuckled at my reaction. "It's really warm here. I wasn't sitting here, shirtless in anticipation."

I put the computer down, and pulled off my shirt. I laughed as the smile spread across Eric's face. "Sorry, just catching up."

"I love your breasts," he murmured. "God, I miss them already, and your nipples are already hard."

I giggled, resisting the urge to cross my arms. "I'm excited, even though I have no idea how we'll do this."

"I wish we were better at phone sex. At least we can get visuals with this."

Eventually, we got in a groove, and it was actually pretty hot. Kind of like watching porn, only we were watching each other instead. I didn't usually enjoy Eric jerking off, but there was something about him doing what I told him to that was pretty hot. And likewise for me.

We both finished with minimal fuss and muss, smiles on our faces. "We can do this for another few months. You'll be back late December, and then for a week in November. It's really only three months."

He nodded, a smile on his face. "Yea, that sounds even better. Three months."

I smiled, shooing Lily away. "We can do this."

"Please don't think anything about Dawn. I swear Sookie, I'd never give you anything else to stress about if I didn't have to, especially now, but I didn't want to not tell you she was here."

I got that, I did. "I know, Baby. It's just hard, you being there."

"I'm here, so I can be around all the time. We just need to keep telling ourselves that."

We said our goodnights a little while later, and the kids weren't the only ones exhausted after a busy day outside. I was out in minutes.

The mornings were as chaotic as they were with Eric around, and I almost had a panic attack when Stella was ten minutes later. I resisted the urge to snap at her, since she was doing this as a favour. Ceci hardly noticed me leaving and when I shuffled Max into the car almost on time, he looked at me, a huge smile on his face. "You look nice today, Mom."

I looked down, grateful that I'd avoided spilling oatmeal on my dress. "Thanks. You excited about your first day of school?"

It was September now. I wasn't sure where the summer had gone.

He nodded. "Yea. I like school, and it'll be nice to have a break from Ceci."

Oh, Max and Ceci. Someday they'd get each other. "Oh, I think she's getting better. She's growing up."

He nodded. "I think she is. Mom, is Dad really coming back?"

I smiled, sad that Max thought that, even for a second. "Yea, he is. I'll tell you what. We'll start a calendar when we get home tonight, and we can cross the days off together. How's that sound?"

His eyes lit up. "That sounds good. Can I cross the days off?"

I shrugged. "Sure. Ceci won't understand, so we'll do it."

We parked and I walked Max in to school, and he tugged at my arm so I'd bend down for a kiss. We'd been getting reports from teachers since kindergarten that he was a terrible flirt, and that didn't surprise me at all. He was learning from the master, after all.

It was nice and quiet when I got into the office. I'd started to make a point of getting in a little early because it was the most productive time of the day for me, before everyone started launching questions at me. It was somehow almost ten when Niall, and a impeccably dressed, rather handsome man knocked on the glass door to my office. I opened it, and without a word, they both came in and shut the door, and sat down in the two seats in front of my desk.

Niall had a huge smile on his face. I hoped he'd just hired a new drinking buddy, so maybe I'd be off the hook for afternoon cocktails. "Susannah, this is Crispin."

I'd seen Crispin's resume. It was quite impressive. I extended my hand. "Pleasure to meet you."

His eyes sparkled as he took me in, and firmly shook my hand. "Pleasure is all mine, Luv. Looking forward to working with you. I've heard raving about you from Niall for weeks now."

Luv. I would have been irritated with his word choice, but his accent was divine. I wouldn't mind listening to him talk my ear off all day as Niall had warned might happen. I quirked an eyebrow at Niall. "All good raving I hope?"

He smiled broadly at me. "Absolutely, Darling. Now, we just need to get Merlotte out the door, so you two can start turning this place around."

Crispin's eyes met mine, and I was caught his gaze for a brief second. His eyes were this rich shade of brown, and I smiled to myself, feeling a bullshit joke that I instinctively knew I'd pull out in the near future, as he leaned back in his chair. "I think we'll be a force to be reckoned with. Call me Bones Luv, most everyone does."

He was cocky, that was clear as soon as he walked in the door, but if anyone knew how to deal with cocky, it was me. I gave him a small smile. "It's Sookie, then. Not Luv."

Niall chuckled, and rose to his feet. "Well, I'll leave you two to it then. Drinks at two?"

Bones waved him out. "See you then."

It was going to be an interesting afternoon. The first of many to come.


	7. Start a War

**So, in case you're not a Night Huntress junkie, Bones is, well, he's amazing. But you don't have to know that to enjoy this story. But you should read Night Huntress, stat. The new book is due out this month I believe, and believe me, I adore Eric, but it's a tough competition for top vampire when you read Bones. They're both so different, but equally wonderful. Anyone that's read the books would likely agree! **

**Thanks so much for reading, and your awesome comments! It makes me so happy that a year later, people still remember the stories enough to pick up where they left off! **

* * *

**Eric**

The first day of classes was quiet. I knew enough French to know that the students thought I was hot, and that I had a weird accent. I wondered if I'd always be hot to students, even as I got older.

I figured I would be. Professor hot was a whole different kind of hot, according to Sookie. Men that would never be hot in any other job were professor hot, because professors were so distinguished and smart. Or at least they were able to make themselves seem like that anyway.

I'd taught this material a million times. It was old hat. Like every year though, the students were engaged with my frank language about sex and sexuality. At the end, as usual, I got mobbed by questions, only this time they were in broken English.

It was two weeks before I ran into Victor, Appius' contact at The Sorbonne. His eyes lit up when he saw me, and he practically chased me down. This was odd, because I had no idea why a rat-like man in a tattered tweed blazer was chasing me. It kind of freaked me out.

"You're Eric Northman," he exclaimed.

"I am." I raised my eyebrows, and looked at him, slightly confused at his enthusiasm, since he obviously wasn't a student.

He extended his hand. "Victor Madden. I was Appius' grad student ten years ago. It's an honour to be able to do the two of you a favour."

I shook it. He had a limp noodle handshake. I wasn't surprised. "Well, it was more of a favour for him." I wanted that straight from the beginning. "I'd rather be back with my family in New York."

Victor nodded knowingly. "Families are often a burden. Yours was unable to accompany you?"

I shrugged, ignoring his burden comment. "Well my wife has a career. She's very senior at the press that publishes my textbook. I believe it's been converted into French. It's kind of the standard text in the US."

"I have heard of it. It's kind of conservative for France though." He smiled. "You're a very handsome man."

I looked at him critically. "I'm not sure why that's important."

He blinked at me. "Looks are of the utmost importance. I'm sure it's a large contributor to your success."

I looked at him deadpan. "I don't think so. If anything, it's been a hindrance, because people don't always take me seriously. I'm not one to be underestimated, however."

Victor shrugged. "We aren't expecting much from you in a semester."

And the psychobabble began. "It doesn't matter what expectations you have for me. I have high expectation for myself, which I will meet here."

He smiled, like the cat that had swallowed the canary. "Of course. Well, I hope you and your wife have a strong marriage. Paris is full of temptation."

I narrowed my eyes at him."I don't think that's any of your business. I'm just here to teach for the semester and go back to NYU."

He inclined his head towards me. "You feel safe in New York. That's unusual, because it's a very tempestuous city as well. I believe in twenty years, our outdated idea of marriage will change anyway, and be more of a partnership, than a vehicle for fidelity."

I externally rolled my eyes at him. "Perhaps we'll meet in twenty years and have this discussion then. If you're right, I'll buy you a drink. I'm sorry, I have a class to prepare for."

I kept walking, and he scampered along behind me. "I have a teaching assistant for you. She's one of our brightest PhD students. Dawn has been kind enough to lend her to you for the semester."

I kept walking. "Fine."

"Indira will meet you after class, and you can let her know what assistance you need. She'll be at your disposal." He wheezed, trying to keep up with my stride.

"Poor her," I said, as I finally reached my classroom door. "Now is that all?" I didn't have to pander to this idiot. Dawn had the same level of seniority as him. They shared the chair role. "I'll go through Dawn for any future requests. We have a history."

His eyes lit up. "Excellent. We all so want you to feel comfortable here."

"Great. Good day." I slammed the door behind him, walking into the huge auditorium.

After class, as expected, a curvy brunette with a perfect, almost Sookie-like bustline met me after class.

She approached my desk, a rather flirty smile on her face. "Dr. Northman?"

"Of course I'm Dr. Northman. Who else would I be?" I said bluntly, unimpressed with her attempt to be coy.

She held out her hand. "Indira. I'll be your assistant."

I nodded towards a pile of the weekly assignments I was giving my upper-year class, in which they discussed their sexuality, in terms of the norms discussed in class that week. If they weren't comfortable discussing their own norms, they were allowed to pick an anonymous family member or a celebrity. "You'll be taking those home. Don't grade like you're making a point, or have something to prove. I hate grad students that think that will impress anyone. If the marks are too harsh in my opinion, you'll have to grade them again. The grading rubric is on the top of the pile. I'll need them for next week's class, along with a sheet containing each mark."

She gathered them up. "Of course."

I raised an eyebrow at her, as she stood there, waiting for something that wasn't going to happen. "That will be all."

She stared at me for a minute, before taking off up the stairs.

I was not going to be taken with some grad student. Whoever thought that would effectively manipulate me into doing anything stupid obviously didn't know me very well.

I wondered what Appius' game was, sending me here under rather false pretenses. If I didn't get the chair position when I got back, I was applying at Columbia. I wasn't putting up with this bullshit for one minute once I was stateside. I knew he saw me as a threat; most people who were in positions of authority over me did, because I was so driven.

I was hard to touch though, because of tenure and my years and years of flawless teaching evaluations. However, destroying my marriage would be a good way to bring me down a few notches for a for a number of reasons. Firstly, it would mean I'd probably work more, having little in my life besides my career. Secondly, it would make me appear as a less stable addition to the department, because the chance that I might decide to leave New York if things got ugly would always be there, and thirdly, my professional relationship with Sookie was a big deal. That book was important to my reputation, and each edition that said I resided at NYU was a huge selling feature when it came to attracting talent that used that book in their first human sexuality course. If things went downhill with the book, then that was a serious chink in my armour.

So, in the eyes of someone without a serious understanding of how my marriage worked, interfering in that would make me work harder, look weak in the eyes of my peers, and make me less of an influence in the eyes of the department. That sounded like a win for Appius.

Too bad it wasn't going to happen. I was going to burst the hell out of his bubble come December.

I called Sookie at work when I got home. She answered after a few rings, and it was obvious that she'd been busting a gut laughing.

"Oh, hi Eric," she gasped. "Sorry, Bones was just doing this impression of Sam that almost killed me."

Bones. I didn't know Bones, but I knew that my wife thought quite highly of him. I wasn't sure how I felt about that. I trusted her implicitly though. "I think I was given a teaching assistant to fuck."

She snorted, covering the phone with her hand, as she told Bones she'd see him later. I heard her office door click shut a minute later. "What?"

I poured myself a glass of wine. "I met the infamous Victor, and he went on this whole rant about how stupid marriage was, and then gave me a beautiful teaching assistant with breasts like yours." I wasn't concerned about her being mad. She knew my stance on grad students.

"Asshole," she spat. "He's the one that Appius knows?"

I'd almost forgotten about that. "Get this. He was his grad student."

She snorted."So they used to fuck, is what you're saying. Gross."

I shrugged. "I guess it could be deduced that they did, from what I know of Appius."

"Sam went off on me today, in a meeting. I would have probably cried, if I didn't know that he only had a week or so left here, it was that bad."

Fucking Sam. If I ever saw that asshole again, I doubted I'd be able to control myself from saying something. "What did he say to you?"

She sighed. "He basically said that I got ahead here on your name, in front of all the directors. Niall asked me to sit in, well because I'll be a part of those meetings, and Sam was not impressed."

Everyone knew that wasn't true. Sookie had signed a lot of books, some bigger than mine. "Asshole."

She laughed. "Niall chided him in the meeting in front of everyone. Like I said, if I didn't know what was going on, I would have been far more upset. It's been a long week with him here, trying to make himself look like he's doing a good job."

"I think Appius is trying to destroy our marriage."

She giggled. "No shit. Sending you six hours away isn't really a sign that he's supportive."

I guess that was kind of obvious. "But I think he's really trying. I think he's trying to plant seeds. He's not been in touch with you, has he?"

"No. I wouldn't talk to that old pervert anyway." She was quiet for a minute. "Sam wants to meet with me. He just sent an email."

"Make sure you forward that to Niall."

I didn't have to see her to know she was rolling her eyes at me. "Thanks. I've got this under control. I'll turn the tape recorder on my phone on."

I smiled to myself. "Good girl. I'll call you later?"

"You better. I got the underwear you sent me," she practically purred at me.

I had to admit, watching Sookie masturbate a couple of times a week wasn't so bad. It wasn't as good as fucking her, but it wasn't so bad.

I smiled. "My Fleshlight came."

"I don't want to watch you fuck a can, Eric. I mean, do what you want, but your big hands do more for me than a can would." She giggled. "On that note, I should go talk paper with Sam."

"Tell him to go and fuck himself for me, will you?"

She snorted. "We'll see how the conversation goes. Maybe. Love you."

"You too."

**Sookie**

I walked into Sam's office, confidently sitting across from him. "Yes?"

He leaned back in his chair and looked at me expectantly. "Anything you want to tell me?"

I shook my head. "I think I've told you all I want to. Now, is this about a project?"

He looked at me with utter disdain. "Your husband's book is over length."

I shrugged. "Lafayette will edit it down. It's always over length." Eric fell in love with his own words. He had a hard time cutting, especially since we'd been doing new editions.

He shook his head. "Not this time. It's going to take a long time. We'll have to freelance it and take it out of his royalties."

I crossed my arms. "I don't think so. That's not in his contract."

Sam crossed his in return. "I think it's a bit of a conflict, you negotiating his contract."

I sighed. "You weren't complaining a year ago, when we did the contract. Your John Hancock is on there too."

He stared at me intensely. "You're a bit big for your britches lately."

"I think I'm going to go back to my office, if you're done here." I stood up. "Have a good afternoon."

He spoke again, as my hand went to the doorknob. "We're not done."

I put my hands on my hips, happy my recorder was on. "What else is there to say, Sam? Do you have some problem with my job performance, because you've been more critical this week than you have been in my seven years working for you."

"Your most valuable attribute has always been your ability to do your job as you were told to do it, and you're failing at that miserably this week. That's my issue."

I rolled my eyes at him. I was so done. "Take it up with Niall."

"I will!" He shouted, as I slammed the door to his office.

Bones was waiting by my office when I finished with Sam. "Niall sent me down." He handed me a note. "And he gave me his company card to take you out to lunch, Lu...Sookie." He grinned broadly. "Sorry, old habit. He wants you out of the office when he deals with Sam after his little outburst earlier."

"I'll break you of it." I smiled back, grabbing my purse. "And I want sushi. Good sushi."

Bones held my office door open for me. "He said to spare no expense."

We ended up at Tomoe, which was cheap and amazing. Bones kind of turned his nose up as we walked in. "Well this wasn't what I was expecting."

"Wait till you try the tuna rolls. Don't let the atmosphere throw you off."

He shrugged, and after twenty minutes, we were finally seated. For two in the afternoon, it was still crazy busy. It was Tomoe, after all.

Bones sipped his tea like I imagined a proper Englishman would. "So that Sam's a real prick, huh?"

"He never used to be, but yea, he is. I started recording all my conversations."

"Good call, Luv."

I laughed. "Sookie. It's funny, because my husband calls me Lover. It's weird to hear another love related nickname from anyone but him."

Bones nodded, a wicked smile on his face. "I'm stepping on his toes a bit then. He's away Niall said?"

I nodded. "In Paris until December. He's guest lecturing at the Sorbonne."

"Impressive. That'll look good in the preface of the next edition of his book. He's quite into the sex, yes?"

I giggled. "You think? Sex is his life."

"You must be a very lucky woman, then." He smirked at me.

"He's a wonderful father and husband. I'm very lucky." I smirked back. "So Crispin Philip Arthur Russell the Third, tell me about yourself. How does a man such as yourself pick up and leave his motherland on a whim?"

He chuckled, leaning back in his chair. "Oh, that's a long story."

I shrugged. "We have time."

He looked up at the ceiling, a small smile on his face. "You ever heard of a cougar?"

I scrunched my my nose. I had no idea what he was talking about. "We have panthers in Louisiana. You left home over a cat?"

His eyes twinkled mischievously. "Different kind of pussy."

I narrowed my eyes. "What?" And then I realized what he was getting at. "Oh, a woman?"

He chuckled. "A cougar is an older woman that dates younger men. I tired of being a boytoy. Needed a change."

"Oh. So you just left her?"

"Without so much as a phone call. I sent her an email last week. She's none too pleased, but she can bugger off."

"That's not very nice." I thought back to my own blindside experience. "Not nice at all. She's probably missing you terribly. Did you tell her what she did wrong? Why you left?"

"She was a spiteful harpy. Isn't that enough?" He cocked his head at me. "Old broad launched a lamp at my head." He lifted his arm to display a huge, faded, yellowing bruise. "Clocked me with a frying pan. I'm nearly forty. I don't need to tolerate that kind of abuse."

Well that was certainly surprising. Bones was nearly the size of Eric, although a few inches shorter. I couldn't imagine him tolerating some woman beating on him. "Was it the first time?"

He shook his head. "No, Luv. Annette and me, we were quite passionate in most ways, some good, some bad. Shagging older women has its advantages. They know what they like, and they aren't afraid to tell you. They've also got skills. However, they're also quick to tell you what they don't like as well."

I shook my head, realizing that this lunch conversation had gotten out of control. "Alright then. Well, I hope you're happy here. I don't want to train anyone else if you decide she's what you want."

He smiled at me brightly. "Oh, I sold my flat. I'm here for the long term. It's a bit lonely, but birds do love this accent. I think I'll do alright." He leaned over, eying my California roll. "Can we swap a couple? I fancy what you have I think."

I shrugged. "Sure."

We did an even swap, Hamachi for California. "So, this husband of yours. Does he run off often?"

I rolled my eyes. "He did not run off. He was ordered more or less. And this is the first time, and it's only until December."

He nodded, picking at the avocado that fell out of his roll."You've got little ones though. That's why you're out at a normal time most nights."

"Yes. We have a boy and a girl. Three and seven. We all miss him a lot. Especially our son." Max had been doing better though since we'd been crossing the days off. We had Thanksgiving circled in big red ink. He'd even asked to call Eric a few times, and ordered me out of the room so they could talk about 'man stuff' as he so kindly informed me. Eric seemed less stressed about things when they talked too, so that was a relief.

"Sounds rough." He smiled, his teeth gleaming at me. He was very handsome, and he'd been a good sounding board when it came to Sam over the past week. I almost heard Eric tense up when I talked about the new, funny Brit that was working under me though, so I curbed my Bones talk when we spoke. There was no reason to have him concerned about something that was a non-issue. "So, first order of business when Sam's gone?"

"Get my ass in that sweet office and clean the crumbs off his desk. You wouldn't believe the crumbs Bones. It's unreal. I noticed more today. I just cleaned them before he came back. The man is a pig. Then? Everyone on recycled paper, and then e-books."

He nodded. "I've got a bit of experience with the e-book business. We were digitizing everything at my old press. We'll chat more about that."

E-books. The bane of mine, and every other editor's existence. But I wasn't an editor anymore, at least I wouldn't be, after next week. "You know what Bones? You're in charge of e-books. Your first order of business is to write me an e-book business plan."

I was going to like this boss business after all.


	8. Better

**So, here's the next chapter! I'm lucky enough to have a snow day tomorrow, so I was able to stay up a bit later to finish it! Thanks so much for reading and reviewing, and let me know what you think!**

**PS. I love these crazy kids. That's all you really need to keep in mind.**

* * *

**Eric**

Week five.

I was over Paris. I mean, I was over it to start with, but now I was really over it, and I had a month and a half left until I got to go home for a week, and then had to come back to this godforsaken country for another month.

I should have loved France. I really should have. It was a more sexual place, with lots of research opportunities, and amazing wine. And cheese. I'd been eating a lot of cheese. I'd put on a good five pounds, probably mostly comprised of cheese. I'd also started a new interview project on couples that was quite interesting.

Most days at work, I also found myself in what seemed like some giant psychological experiment. Dawn said that Andre was always weird, but I really couldn't imagine anyone living their life as such an oddball. It had to be an act. I thought maybe the first day had just been awkward, but after a few weeks I realized the he was actually like that all the time.

I'd also scared the shit out of Indira on day one, so she was no longer a problem. Not that she ever was.

Possibly due to my moping, Dawn invited me to her and Hoyt's country home in Provence for the second weekend in October. I kept missing Hoyt in Paris by mere days, and we'd had dinner together a couple of times, just her and I.

There was still no sexual chemistry, not that it mattered. It was very bizarre. I wondered somehow, if my father had had an affair, and Dawn was actually related to me in some way. I knew it wasn't true, but I really couldn't figure it out. Maybe it was because we were too much alike. When I thought about it, I probably would have hated myself with a vagina.

We both finished up our work on Friday afternoon, I grabbed my overnight bag, and we were off.

It was a long drive, and we were meeting Hoyt there, since he'd spent the week in Italy. We chatted about our former lives for most of the drive, and then our current ones. She listened patiently to me wax on for hours about the kids, even though there was no mistaking the bored expression on her face. It felt nice to chat about them though, and tell her what they'd been up to since I'd been gone. Ceci had started going to a pre-school class once a week, that we'd had her on the wait-list for for ages, and Max had won a creative writing contest. Sookie had faxed me his entry, and I had to admit, from an unbiased place, of course, that it was quite good.

At some point, I fell asleep, and when I woke up, we were pulling into a lovely cottage, with a very new, very nice BMW in the parking lot. I hadn't seen Sookie's yet. I was sure her new job didn't come with a convertible though. Sam had had a sedan.

Dawn smiled when she saw I was awake. "Sorry, I was just so glad you stopped talking about your kids that I just let you sleep."

I chuckled. "You really do hate kids, don't you?"

She shook her head, and sighed. "So much. Come on in. I'm guessing Hoyt's got the grill going. He wrote me about twenty minutes ago and asked how you like your steak. I said rare. I don't know why I said that." She smiled.

I smiled. "Medium rare really. But I'll take rare."

I grabbed our bags, and poked my head up out of the trunk of Dawn's when I heard her squeal. Seconds later, I saw her leap into a very tall man's arms.

I had to admit, I was starting to wonder if Hoyt actually existed. I cleared my throat a few minutes later, and he put her down, and extended his hand. "You're the infamous Eric."

"And you're the infamous Hoyt." I shook it firmly, happy to receive a strong handshake for what felt like the first time in weeks. I'd gotten used to the double kiss. "Thanks for having me."

He nodded, in a very Texan way. He wasn't what I expected at all, a tall man with a very boyish face. "Our pleasure. Dawn here's been telling me about you for years."

"All good things I hope?" I glanced at her, shaking my head at the wicked smile on her face.

"Good things if you're going to be seeing her more than I am." He cracked a smile. "We're not much for secrets."

I nodded. "I can respect that." It was the unspoken code of the sexperts. No secrets.

Hoyt grinned broadly. "Then we'll get along just fine."

He made a mean steak, and the spread of breads and cheeses and this amazing salad made with all fresh local ingredients. I hadn't eaten so well since I'd come to Paris.

Provence was beautiful as well. Their cottage overlooked an incredible field that seemed to go on forever, and the tree-lined road that their place was on was stunning. After dinner, I sat on their porch for an hour or so, grateful for a bit of silence. It was the same kind of peace and quiet I enjoyed in the Hamptons on the off-season, when we'd go down in November or March, and it felt like we were the only people alive, since most people were too scared of a little cold to venture down to the beach.

Hoyt and Dawn retired early, and I quickly realized that the silence was also a bit of a curse, and that when she was actually enjoying sex, Dawn was incredibly loud. I took the opportunity to go for a walk and call Sookie.

She picked up right away, and I realized that it was probably dinnertime at home. I had no idea what time it was here. "Eric, I'm just getting in the door. Ceci, don't chase Lil. She doesn't like it. Sorry."

"I can call back."

She sighed. "No, I want to talk. Let me just say goodbye to Claudine, and I'll be right with you."

I heard her set the phone down, and then a distinctive giggle, followed by a tiny voice. "Who is this?"

My heart ached a little. I missed them terribly. "It's Daddy. Hi baby."

She sighed an exasperated Pam-like sigh. "Daddy, where are you? We're having stew without you."

"I'm still in Paris, well, kind of. How was your day?"

"Well, Claudine and I coloured, and then we picked Max up, and then we made a cake. A chocolate cake. What did you do?"

"I drove for a long time, and then I had dinner with some friends. I'm in the country. It's kind of like the Hamptons." She sounded so grown-up. Here I was, in one of the most beautiful places I'd ever seen, and I really just wanted to be with them. I would have called myself a pussy ten years ago. I didn't care. I just missed them, plain and simple.

"I drew you a picture. Mom said we could mail it to you."

"I'd love that. I have the other ones you sent on my fridge."

"Bones is coming over for dinner next week. I made him a picture too."

Fucking Bones. He'd been over for dinner once, and Ceci brought him up ever time we talked. Max was decidedly less interested, telling me that he chewed with his mouth open. "Oh, that's nice."

"He makes funny faces, and he talks funny. Like Johan and Stella sometimes. But not the same. Why do they talk funny?"

Johan and Stella had this annoying but very smart habit of speaking Swedish when they were trying to pull one over on the kids. It drove Max and Ceci nuts, but was very effective. "I think it's an accent, Baby. Bones is from England, which is close to where Daddy is."

"I want you to colour with me."

And once again, without having any idea, my kid ripped my heart out. "Soon. I'll be able to colour with you soon."

"How soon?"

"In a little over a month. Then I'll be home for Thanksgiving."

"And then we'll colour?"

She sounded so much like my first memories of Pam sometimes it was scary. "Sure, baby."

"Okay. Mom's ready for you now."

"Love you."

I heard her scream 'love you too', as she ran off somewhere, and Sookie came on the phone. "Sorry, just wanted to order the Thai for dinner. How are you?"

I sat down in the grass and looked up into the incredibly clear night sky. "I'm in the incredibly beautiful place, and I had to go outside because Dawn and her husband are fucking, and I couldn't bear to listen. You?"

She sighed. "Still dealing with Sam fallout. Lots of reports to file, all of that. He's suing like we thought he would, so Niall's got to cover our asses. I have to write a full report on the day he left."

That had been quite the day. I'd gotten a series of very distraught calls throughout the day, all of which were whispering about the tirade Sam had been going on the morning before he was escorted out. I'd felt terrible for her, because when it all happened, she'd taken the brunt of his anger, because she knew and was obviously taking his job, and he'd chosen not to go quietly. He'd also chosen to be oblivious to the realities of the situation for so long, so I couldn't imagine anyone being too sympathetic for him. "I'm sorry you're dealing with all that."

"You and me both. So I booked my flight before I left Paris yesterday. I get home on the eighteenth, and leave on the twenty-sixth. Then I'm back for good on the twenty-second."

I could hear her scratching down details. "Email me your flight times will you, so I can put them in my Outlook? Pam said she'd get you at the airport if I couldn't."

"I get in at six your time, so unless you leave work early, it'll have to be Pam with traffic."

She sighed. "I'll have her bring the kids?"

I smiled to myself, thinking about that moment. "That'd be great."

"I'll be there if I can. It seems like time is crawling some days, you know?"

Did I ever. "You should see Dawn and Hoyt's house here. You'd love it. It's very country chic, like a mix of your Bon Temps house and the Hamptons, but in France."

"Send me some pictures."

I was a jealous asshole. I knew I was. "Bones is coming for dinner _again_?"

Sookie groaned, since she knew me too well sometimes. "Yes, Eric, my co-worker is coming for dinner for the second time in a month. He doesn't know anyone here. We spend like six hours a day together. Last time he was here, we worked after dinner. We'll probably work again after dinner. Would you prefer me leave the kids and stay in the office?"

We'd had this discussion before. "Of course not. I just, I don't know him, and he's a strange man around my kids."

"He's not a strange man. He's a perfectly nice man, that I work closely with. Let's be honest here. And that was a low blow. You really think I'd bring someone I didn't trust around _my_ kids?"

It had been a low blow. "I guess I'll feel better when I meet him."

She snorted. "I don't know about that."

What the hell did that mean? "What do you mean?"

She was quiet for a minute. "I'm going to be straight up with you, because you're straight up with me. He's very handsome, and charming, and he's already got Stella and Ce wrapped around his finger, and Stel only met him for five minutes when she dropped off your car keys at work last week. You're not going to feel better about anything, if you're counting on him being dumpy and unattractive."

"Ouch."

She sighed. "Eric, I trust you, and I've never given you any reason not to trust me, and I'm not about to, because some attractive Brit with a quirky nickname comes to work with me. I work with handsome men quite often, Eric, in case you for some reason thought you were the only attractive professor in America. You don't have to be geographically present to be a presence in my life. It's not like I've forgotten about you. We talk every day. Despite this, we're great together. Even doing this, we're okay. Not everyone would be okay."

I knew she was right. "I just hate this. It's a long time."

"Then yell about it, scream about it, tell me how much you hate it. Don't start making up problems that aren't there. No shit it's a long time. I'm the one trying to be two parents here."

"I'm sorry," I mumbled, shuffling my feet in the grass. "You're doing a really great job. I know it's a lot."

She was quiet for a while. "I miss _you_, a lot. In every way. Just know that."

**Sookie**

I hung up the phone with Eric and groaned to myself, since the kids weren't there to hear it, as they had run off somewhere and were probably doing something they weren't supposed.

It was irritating that he was jealous of Bones, because, frankly, Bones was the only thing keeping me going at work most days. He was funny, in an environment that was anything but, and unless you were there, it was hard to understand how bleak it all felt. The restructuring had been a surprise to everyone that wasn't senior management, which meant about ninety per cent of the people I worked with.

Sam had been well-liked. I knew that better than anyone. And although I was thirty-four, I was still a baby in the eyes of a lot of people that had worked there for the better part of twenty years. People who I'd been on very friendly terms with saw me as a backstabbing bitch since I'd been Sam's right hand for a few years. It wasn't going to be easy to convince people to look at me the way Niall did.

And I told Eric that. I told him, and I told him, but there was no way he could ever understand it, even if he was here, because we didn't work together. It wasn't a dynamic that he had an intimate understanding of, just like I had no idea what went on at his department meetings or in the faculty lounge at NYU. But if he was here, he'd see my tired face at the end of the day, and be really aware that there were problems. He could also take care of the kids some nights, and rub my feet, and look at me that way he did, that way that made everything else disappear, even if it was just for a little while.

For now, I was stuck with Bones, my work husband, as Amelia had so aptly dubbed him, after he rejected her when she invited him to some sort of party one afternoon. He wasn't so bad, and we actually worked well together, having established a very honest repertoire right from day one. I needed someone to have my back, and he did, without question. Publicly, anyway. If there was something he disagreed with, we fought it out until someone clearly and logically won. There were no issues of seniority, or experience with Bones and I. There were problems, and best solutions.

He still called me Luv, however, and I still corrected him, every time. It had become a bit of a joke.

I gave Ceci a bath, and read her her story while Max had a shower. He didn't do baths anymore. Only showers. I hated that he was growing up in some ways, but in other ways I was so proud of him, and it was amazing to watch him develop his own little personality. He was so smart too, and like his Mom and Dad, a proud overachiever.

He gave me a shout when he was ready for his story, and I flicked off the light in Ce's room and I crawled into his bed. "We're almost done Tom Sawyer, huh?"

He nodded. "I want to read Moby Dick next. Dad likes that one."

Sometimes I almost broke down and cried when he said things like that, because it reminded me of when my parents died, and Jason and I would do things we knew they liked to feel close to them. I still obsessively bought and cracked shelled nuts during the holidays even though I didn't really like them, because I remembered my Dad doing it when I was a kid. "Maybe you can save it and read it when he gets back."

He shook his head. "He reads too fast."

Eric did read fast. It was why I'd always been the preferred reader. "You should tell him that. I bet he'd slow down. Why don't we read Huck Finn next? They kind of go together."

Max nodded. "Okay, Mom. We can do that. I might still want you to read Moby Dick."

I tickled him a little. "I'm not surprised. How are you doing, with everything?"

He shrugged. "I'm okay. Claudine is obsessed with hand washing. It's like every time I pick something up I have to wash my hands."

She was a bit of a neat freak. "Hand washing is good. It's very important."

He rolled his eyes. "I know that. She's just so sing songy."

I couldn't argue with him there. She kind of drove me nuts, but she was the reason things were running so smoothly at home, so I had to give her a lot of credit for that, even if she wasn't someone I wanted to spend more than ten minutes a day with.

Luckily, I didn't have to, and Ce, who bore the brunt of her sing songiness didn't seem to mind. "Your Dad will be back before you know it, and then we'll figure something else out maybe. He should be able to get you from schools most days."

Max inclined his head towards me, when we finished reading our three chapters. "Do you miss him?"

I mustered up the best half smile, as I went to face our empty house alone for what felt like the millionth time. "So much. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have you guys."

That got a smile out of him, which was nice to see. "He'll be back soon, Mom."

"Thanks Maxkin."

I'd invited Bones over for dinner on Tuesday, since we had the first drafts of the budgets for the fourth quarter due that Friday.

"We can just buy something, Luv. You don't have to cook," he said, as we managed to make it out at five.

I shook my head. "I bought all weekend. My kids are going to weight six hundred pounds when when their dad gets back."

"They're beanpoles." He grinned, as we got into my new car, which kind of felt obnoxious. It came with the job though, and I wasn't one to turn down a BMW. "I get my car next week."

Bones was getting my old car until the new fiscal year. "It's a good car. I didn't use it all that much. I hate driving in the city."

When we got home, Claudine already had the kids in their pyjamas. Max looked irritated, and Ceci looked thrilled to be in her favourite pink pair. She gave me a huge grin when I got in the door. "I was going to start dinner for you, but I wasn't sure what you were having, so I did the laundry instead."

Jesus. Was she supernanny? "Uh, thanks. Everything was okay today?"

She nodded furiously, her excessive energy after a day with Ce setting me on edge. "We made paper mache masks. They're drying on the back porch. We'll paint them tomorrow."

That sounded like a lot of work. "Wow. That's really great." And then I remembered Bones was behind me. "Claudine, this is Crispin. He's a colleague of mine."

A judgemental look flashed across her face, and quickly vanished, as she extended a perfectly manicured hand? How did one maintain a perfect manicure when they watched kids for a living? I couldn't even do it with a desk job. Fucking judgemental bitch. Couldn't I just work with someone?

"Lovely to meet you," she said enthusiastically .

"Likewise, Luv." He flashed a perfect grin.

"Oh, you're English," She practically swooned. "I love your accent."

Bones raised an eyebrow at me. He heard that every day. I knew because I heard it when I was with him, and I kept telling him he'd tire of it eventually, but he swore he never would. "It's pretty standard where I'm from."

And then we were saved by Ceci, who practically jumped into Bones' arms. "You came!" she squealed.

Claudine took that as her sign to leave. "On that note. Kids, I'll see you tomorrow."

They completely ignored her, Max to look sullen and angsty in the corner, and Ceci to ask Bones eight million questions, all of which he answered with good humour.

And then she asked one I was actually quite curious about. "Why are you called Bones?"

His answer was actually quite telling. It went a long way in explaining his rogue-like attitude. "When I was little like you, I was very ill. I spent a lot of time in bed, and I wasn't able to run around and play like you do, because I had some problems with my bones. Here, Luv, touch right here." He pulled his pant leg up. "With your fist."

Ceci tentatively knocked on his shin, which kind of made a clanging sound. "Cool!"

"I'm practically a robot." He grinned. "So anyway, everyone spent a lot of time worrying about my bones, and eventually it stuck."

Even Max, who was truly his father's son and really despised Bones was kind of intrigued, and came over and checked it out. "So, you have a metal leg?"

"Just a bone, little man. I don't even remember life without it, although there were a lot of surgeries when I was about your age that I remember. Things like that make you grow up very quickly." He glanced up at me. "And then make you live every day like it was your last."

That certainly explained his refreshing attitude. "Go wash up for dinner guys."

Ceci ran into our bathroom, and Max rolled his eyes, before stomping off. "I probably shouldn't have told them that. It'll probably give the little critters nightmares."

I shrugged. "They live with a sexpert. It takes quite a lot to faze them. What did you have?"

"Bone cancer. It's very rare. I lived quite a sheltered childhood because my mum was always so concerned that it would come back. When she passed when I was twenty, I kind of went a bit nuts for a while, reliving lost youth and all that." He tugged up the sleeve on his t-shirt, to reveal a skull and crossbones tattoo. "Can you believe I actually got that? What the hell was I thinking? Anyway, I mellowed out after a few years, but I do crazy things like leave my old lady and move across the pond from time to time."

"It's nice that you appreciate your time."

He nodded. "It's all you got, Luv. The time you're given."

His words hit a real nerve. I'd never missed the person I enjoyed spending my time with more.

We sat down at the table and ate my rather infamous Mexican chicken, which the kids loved. Bones picked at it, before digging in. He was a rather fussy eater, I'd noticed, since we ate lunch together most days. "Is it alright?"

He nodded, clearly embarrassed that I'd noticed. "Christ, I'm worse than a child. It's wonder I've survived as long as I have. I like most things, I just need to get a taste for them."

I laughed. "I'm not easily offended. We don't do the clean your plate thing here. Apparently that's what made everyone obese. I just give them small portions and offer more."

Bones watched the news as I put the kids to bed, after both spending about ten minutes talking to Eric. I told him I'd call him later, after I'd sent my guest home, if we ever finished our budget stuff. Math was always an area that I struggled with.

And soon it became obvious that I wasn't alone in that. We spent hours laughing over our terrible math skills, as we tried to piece things together from the nonsense Sam had left. "Shit, Luv, no wonder we're word people."

I snorted. "It's Sookie. I guess you just can't be both. It's nearly ten though. I've got to call the husband. It's so late in Paris."

He nodded, standing up and stretching. "I can take a hint." I noticed him glance at a candid we'd blown up from our city hall wedding, Max quite present under my dress. "He's a lucky man, he is. I hope he knows it."

I smiled. "Oh, I think he does." I threw everything back in a file folder. "We can look at this more tomorrow."

"I'm firing Agnes. You'll get an email about it tomorrow."

Agnes was a forty-something editor who had been insolent since Sam left. I wasn't surprised. "Well, we'll have to go through all the proper channels. Three warnings and all that. We have to be extra careful with Sam's lawyers breathing down our necks."

Bones shrugged. "He's got nothing. I've never seen so many reported issues put up with for so long. You know Amelia had a sexual harassment charge in against him? Amelia, of all people."

I was pretty sure neither of us were supposed to know that. "Surprising. Keep that under your hat now."

He scoffed at me. "Of course. I was just telling _you_."

I rolled my eyes, shuffling him out the door. "Goodnight, Bones."

I could tell Eric was sleeping when I called. "Hey. Sorry, working on budgets."

"Is he gone?" he mumbled at me, obviously irritated.

I crossed my arms as I sat down on the bed. "Eric, are you seriously going to be like that every day when you get back, because he's not going anywhere. Do you want to Skype?"

"Yea. Let me get my computer out, and I'll call you back."

A few minutes later, I was curled up in bed with Lily and my laptop. I wasn't sure what she was going to do when Eric got back and wanted his side of the bed. The annoying ring popped up a minute later. I grinned at his sleepy face and messy hair.

"Hey."

He wiped his eyes. "Hey. I missed Mexican chicken? Max said it was good, and that Bones is a robot?"

"He's got a metal bone in his leg. The kids were quite impressed."

"They're easily impressed."

I groaned. "Look, it's late. I don't want to fight about Bones, again, so can we not?"

He blinked at me, wiping his eyes. "I was just stating a fact, Lover."

"Sook..." And then I stopped myself. "It's fine. How was your day?"

"Meh," He gave me a half smile. "Max and I each crossed a day off the calendar, so that means it was a good one. Time is not moving backwards."

"Thank God for small favours, I suppose." I gave him a half smile back. "I'll come on earlier tomorrow."

"And I'll be less grumpy." He winked. "I love you."

"I love you too. A month till Thanksgiving."

"I'm literally counting down the hours. Lil's keeping my side of the bed warm?"

I glanced at her. "She's trying so hard, but she's just not a giant like you. She may be a better cuddler though."

He snorted. "That's just because you haven't had me in a while."

I looked at him wistfully. "Don't I know it."

"I'll be back for the coldest months. I started planning our fuckaversary." The excitement in his eyes was obvious, even through time and space and the internet.

"Now, see? Not even Appius Livius Ocella can take that away from us."

Eric chuckled. "On that note, until tomorrow."

We kind of looked at each other for a minute, before we turned Skype off, neither of us saying a word, just working hard to remember each other's faces for the following day. It was usually how our calls ended.

"One more month," I told Lily, as we drifted off to sleep, her head on my arm.


	9. 500 Miles

**You folks have some interesting ideas about where I'm going. Thanks for reading, and remember reviews are like fuel for writers. I know I'm usually a high octane writer with the speedy updates anyway, but I do appreciate the fuel, even though I keep rushing past the part of the process where I tell you that individually. So thanks for that, and if you're a writer reading, you can withhold my review response for my lack of writing one back. Even trade.  
**

**Here's the next chapter. I hope you like!**

* * *

**Eric**

One more week.

I groaned, as I came against the wall of the tiny shower, somewhat satisfied, but not completely. Jerking off was a necessary form of relief from time to time, necessary to go on with one's day without constant distraction. I had a rather overactive sex drive. In times of drought, not that I'd had too many, I became quite well acquainted with my hand.

And this was a drought like no other. Even when Sookie and I had first gotten together, she and I were masters of cutting the tension in other ways. We'd been doing alright on Skype, but once the novelty wore off, it really wasn't as good as it had been in the beginning.

My work with couples was far more satisfying, because in a lot of ways, I felt like it brought me closer to her, and kept her in my mind almost every minute of the day. Paris was an amazing place to interview couples. They came from everywhere, to wander the cobblestone streets and feel a bit of the emotion associated with the most romantic city in the world. The candid way they spoke, and the way the city affected them was quite beautiful.

We talked all the time as well, which helped. It was nice to hear her voice, and she answered whenever I called, even though I knew at times it wasn't convenient. Alternatively, she woke me up quite often, once she got the kids to bed to chat a little longer. She never cried on Skype, when I could see her face though, only on the phone. I was grateful for that in a way. It was easier to hear the emotion in her voice than to see it on her face. It was terrible either way, knowing I'd caused or at least contributed to any of that.

The kids were better than I'd thought they'd be. They both talked to me every day, sometimes not for long, but at least for a few minutes. Max had asked me to read Moby Dick with him when I got back, which had made me grin like a fool, because he usually hated reading with me, and Ceci kept right on mailing me ridiculous pictures that now peppered the fridge and walls of my apartment. I couldn't wait to snuggle the hell out of both of them. Pam had already warned me that no one liked a sobbing man at the airport, but I'd made no guarantees.

Her and Alcide had come and gone, leaving me with Gaby for a couple of evenings. She was almost two now, and we toddled around the streets of Paris at dusk, her demanding to be on my shoulders most of the time. She'd been good too, only throwing one tiny tantrum when I refused her part of my cookie at a cafe. I hoped for Alcide's sake that she'd develop his usually level temper, instead of Pam's fiery one.

I wondered briefly if there would be any long term effects of having Pam for a mother, but quickly dismissed the thought. Pam was a wonderful mother, and her occasional insanity was par for the course. Our mother had had her insane moments as well, but we'd both survived, and turned into mostly functional adults, although it had taken us a longer time than most to get there. Gaby knew nothing of her parent's sexual habits, and I had the feeling by the time she found out, if she ever did, she would have long since developed her own. I knew their rules from Sookie. They never brought anyone around when she was in the house. I could respect that.

I'd just settled onto my couch with some interviews I wanted to transcribe from the couple interviews I'd done, when I got a call from someone unexpected. Especially when I did the math and realized that was around six in the morning in New York.

"Johan?" I answered in Swedish kind of without even realizing it, seeing his name come up on my phone. It wasn't that we didn't speak, in fact we had coffee from time to time at NYU, and always ended up reverting to Swedish. I liked him a lot actually, and I'd never tell Stella, but in a lot of ways he reminded me of her non-bio Dad, Gus. She had her high strung Northman moments, and he was a great balance to that, down to earth and calm in most every situation. He was her rock.

He sounded kind of uncomfortable in a way. "Hi, Eric. How's Paris?"

I snorted. "Meh. How's New York. How's Stel? She hasn't called this week yet." Stella usually called me on Sunday night, around the time she knew Sookie was putting the kids to bed. I appreciated her thoughtfulness. We usually chatted about mundane things, and I was really impressed with how much she'd stepped up to help out Sookie out with me being gone. She picked up groceries from time to time, and had covered for Claudine when she was off sick with the flu a week or so ago.

"She's good. Just finishing up a draft of her thesis. You'll probably get stuck reading it when you get home. I don't understand any of it. It's all music theory. She writes very well though."

"How's your PhD going?" He was doing a great thesis on addiction in society. For a sociology paper, it was quite fascinating.

"Good, good. I ran into Appius last week, oddly enough, and he asked about it."

They'd met when we had coffee once, and he'd randomly stopped by. I wanted to rip his head off, the way he looked at Johan. "What did he say to you?"

"He asked about you, and then my thesis. I remembered what you said about him being a pervert and I kept it short. That guy's really weird."

I shook my head to myself. "I know. It'll be my first order of business to oust his ass when I get back."

Johan chuckled. "You're such a Northman. Listen, on that note, I have a question for you."

And this was it. A moment I'd been waiting a while for now. That pivotal moment where I really became Stella's dad. Which was ironic, because I was about to hand her off to someone else. "Oh yea?"

He was quiet for a minute, before not so much asking, but stating, "I'd like to marry Stel. I think there's some sort of traditional asking involved, but I don't know Gus, and I have the feeling she'd rather have me ask you anyway, if I was asking anyone. She'll probably think it's stupid that I'm asking anyone, because you and I both know she's her own. But I'm asking anyway."

I wiped my eyes. I was turning to such an old suck. "If you're asking, then I'm saying of course. You're a good man, and I'm very happy to have had the opportunity to get to know both of you."

"You as well. I think she's a different and better person than she would have been without you in her life. We're both lucky to have you and Sookie in our lives as well."

"When are you going to do it?"

"I thought I'd wait until you were around over Thanksgiving. I figured she'd like that. I still have to buy a ring too. I don't suppose you know what she likes in a diamond."

I grinned to myself. "No, but don't take Pam. Take Sookie. Pam's tastes aren't Stella's, not when it comes to something she's got to wear forever." And Pam would also expect him to spend far more than he had. As a PhD student, he made peanuts in grants. Pam would expect something huge, and Stel would be furious that he'd spent so much. Sookie was more practical.

"That sounds like a great idea. Thanks, Eric."

"Nice talking with you, Johan. Also, don't take her to a restaurant to do it or anything. She'd hate that."

He laughed. "I know."

I had a 2 p.m. class, and then four interviews with people I'd met the following weekend that had agreed to give their perspectives on love, being together, and Paris. I was actually quite excited about the project, having gathered about thirty interviews so far, from a real cross-section of people of varying ages, genders, and nationalities.

As I made my way to my first interview at four, I called Sookie. She was again giggily. "Oh, hey Eric."

I heard her put the phone down and whisper something to someone, and then a distinct, "Right, Luv. I'll see you at the cover meeting."

"He calls you Luv?"

She groaned. "He's British. He calls everyone Luv. How are you?"

I hated Bones. I hated him for having all the women in my life eating out of his geographically convenient hand. "Fine."

I didn't need to see the eye roll to know it happened. "Look. We're seeing each other in six days. Can we not do this? Let's try this again. How are you?"

"I just hate that he gets to be there with you every day, that's all. Johan is going to ask Stella to marry him. He asked my permission, well, sort of, this morning."

"Oh wow!" I could hear the excitement in her voice. "That's amazing."

"I know. He wants to do it while I'm home. I think for moral support. Maybe we can have a celebratory dinner."

"Sure. I mean, your daughter is getting engaged. We'll do whatever. Did he ask Gus too?"

"No. Just me. He thought she'd want him to ask me, if he asked anyone."

"That's sweet Eric. I guess you'll be walking down her the aisle and all that. Wow."

I hadn't enough thought about any of that. "I'm too young to be doing any of that."

"And I'm too young to be married to someone that's doing those things," she giggled. "I have a cover meeting. I have to go. Call me later?"

"I'll email you some of my coupley interviews. I think I want to try and make them into a book."

"That sounds interesting. Not a textbook."

"No, no. A trade book. They're really lovely interviews, very romantic." I knew she'd enjoy them. "I think people love differently in Paris." I stopped myself, thinking about her Paris experience.

She laughed awkwardly. "Maybe. Okay, I really got to run. We're looking at covers for your book. I know it's a little early, but we have a design surplus that we need to use up. I'll pick a good one, I promise."

"Bye."

Joe and Edna Schmidt were unlike most of the other people I'd interviewed, and was precisely why I'd chosen them. He'd balked at first, and I'd stood back as she'd talked him into it in a matter of minutes. We met at a tiny coffee shop about three blocks from my house, and I asked the question that seemed to be incredibly successful at starting everything.

"How did you meet?"

Joe, a grizzly eighty something year old, glanced over at Edna. "I met Edna in England during the war. I came over in forty-three and met Edna that fall. She was only fifteen, but then again, I was only seventeen."

She gave him a knowing look. "We had our fun, as so many did in those days, and then he took off for Russia, and I never heard tell of him again. Not till ten years later, when I was on vacation in New York with my fiance at the time, and ran square into him at a drug store when I was picking up condoms of all things. He's a big man, so I was sort of stunned. And then I look up, and it's him."

"And she tried to ignore the fact that she'd just ran into me, with a box of condoms in New York in the fifties. I'd just taken a job there..."

"And he was in this suit. Joe was an ad man after the war. And I just looked at him, in the suit, and my heart stopped, even ten years later..."

"And she's still got that accent that she has, and she's stumbling over her words, and trying to make the condoms not so obvious. So of course, like a twenty-seven year old asshole, I grab them right out of her hand..."

"And I'm standing there blushing like a fool, while he's holding the condoms, and we're not saying anything, except looking at each other..."

"And then I asked her to dinner, even though I had a serious girl. And she said no, and snatched the condoms out of my hands."

This was a fantastic story. There was so much history here, including the first widespread use of condoms as birth control after the war. "And then what?"

"And then I walked her back to her hotel, knowing I was taking her back to that doofus, what was his name?" He narrowed his eyes at his wife.

She smiled back at him. "John, and he was not a doofus. He was a lovely man."

"So we're standing at the door to the Gramercy Park Hotel, and she grabs my hand, and gives me this look, and says..."

"This is odd, you and me meeting like this, after so long," She smiled, looking at him with genuine affection. "That's what I said."

"And I agreed. It was very odd, so I thought to myself, maybe this is fate. I'd had a rough go in the War, spent a year in Siberia, and you know, seeing her, as she'd known me before any of that, there was something about it. It seemed like something I should pay attention to. I wasn't sure I'd be able to be that man with anyone else. Not with the things I'd seen."

"So he kissed me, and that was kind of it. We did what we had to to be together after that. I left my fiance and moved to New York. And that was sixty-five years ago."

It was a wonderful story. "Why Paris now?"

He chuckled. "We came when we were young on our honeymoon, and we'd always wanted to come back, but life kind of got in the way. We had our kids, and our jobs, and there was always some excuse. When I turned eighty last year, I decided I was tired of excuses."

She gave him a small smile, and squeezed his hand on the table. "And I have cancer. Don't forget about that."

He smiled back, the weight of her words evident on his face. "Sometimes you just need a push."

I knew that better than anyone.

**Sookie**

Bones walked in and closed my office door behind him, then moved to the blinds. "God, I love it when you put Calvin Norris in his place."

I giggled, and sat down in my chair. "I'm the boss."

"Oh, Luv, are you ever." He grinned, his dazzling teeth on display as he walked over and stood in front of me. "You can tell me what to do any time you'd like."

I looked at his neck, which was particularly masculine, and let my eyes journey down his chest. "I want you to kiss me," I whispered.

He pulled me to my feet and turned us around so I was pressed against his desk. "Oh, Luv, I'll do more than that."

"What will you do?" I asked breathlessly.

He slid all paperwork onto the floor. "I've wanted to take you on this desk for weeks now."

I wiggled against him, sliding my tights down and kicking off my shoes. "Well then what are you waiting for?"

He pushed me up, so I was sitting on the desk and pressed his lips against mine, fisting his hand in my hair, as he kissed me firmly. "Just waiting for the right sign, Luv. You're hard to read at times."

"You're so fucking gorgeous," I groaned, as I whipped through the buttons on his shirt, pushing it off his shoulders, as he shoved my skirt up.

"Black lace panties, Sookie." He tisked at me, before biting his lip deliciously. "God, if I'd know that earlier."

I leaned back, clutching the far side of my desk, as he hooked his thumbs around them and tugged them down, leaving them around my ankles. God, he was even smart when it came to office sex. I didn't have time to hunt for those later.

I closed my eyes and leaned my head back, as his hands gripped my legs, his breath hot against my thighs. "Oh, God, Bones," I whispered.

"Look at me, Luv," he said, his voice dripping with sex, as my eyes met his. "That's better now."

God, I'd missed sex, and real orgasms from other people. Why had I waited so long to do this? He was right under my nose, and I was sure Eric would understand. He understood everything about sex, and he knew how much I liked it. He wouldn't be mad at all.

He'd probably approve if it meant I wasn't such a bitch on the phone sometimes.

Bones was amazing at this, and it had been way too long. I felt my orgasm begin to build in minutes, and he seemed to know just what to do. He held my place in legs, as I came, screaming his name.

Screaming Bones after sex was kind of weird. Maybe I should have screamed Crispin. That wasn't much better. Not really.

"Wow," I said, as I adjusted my skirt, and stood up. "We should make that a mandatory part of the day, like lunch."

Bones smirked. "You're the boss, Luv."

I winked at him. "I'll make it so, then. On to the next order of business?"

I raised an eyebrow at him, as I dropped to my knees. He had a gorgeous cock. Perfectly in proportion, long, thick, smooth, and hard. God, it had been too long. He leaned back, his hands gently tugging at my hair. "Oh, Mom, it's time."

I pulled away and looked up at him curiously. "What?"

I opened my eyes to see Max blinking at me. "It's time to get up, Mom. Your alarm has been going off."

I shook my head, trying to get my bearings. "Sorry." I looked at him. "Oh, you're all dressed and ready to go."

He rolled his eyes. "Yea. Remember, I have to be there early. We have a field trip to MOMA."

"Shit," I looked at him, and he raised a very Northman eyebrow. "Shoot, I mean."

I threw myself together, and had just finished pulling Ceci out of bed when Claudine arrive.

"Hello?" she said, in her usual sing-songy voice.

"We're in here. Max and I will get something to eat on the way. Ce is watching cartoons. Gotta go." I waved on my way out the door, with Max in hand.

I stopped and got us both a breakfast sandwich, before taking him into school. "Stel will pick you up. Give me a kiss." I was going with Johan to look at engagement rings. I had to admit, I was kind of excited about it. Who doesn't like jewelery shopping?

He obliged me with a kiss, a smirk on his face. "Three more days."

I nodded. "I know. Are you excited?"

Max nodded. "Yep. Dad's not going to like Bones though."

I gave him a look, the kind that said that this was not the time. "Your dad will like Bones fine. He'll meet him at Thanksgiving."

Max shrugged, grabbing his book bag. "We think he likes you."

Great. He and Eric had been taking about that. That was just what I wanted to hear. "Have a good day."

If I thought that was the last awkward conversation I was going to have for the day, I was terribly mistaken. Just like in my wildly inappropriate dream, Bones came in my office and dropped the blinds. "You didn't get any weird emails, did you?"

I turned my computer on, avoiding eye contact with him, the thought of his head between my legs far too fresh. "I've been here for five minutes. I don't know."

He sat down opposite me. "I think that my ex, Annette may have gotten the wrong idea about you and I. She, well, she googled you, and got a bit miffed that I was working for such a pretty bird."

I looked at him and raised an eyebrow at his word choice. Bones wasn't much for workplace word choice. "Who cares. You broke up."

He sighed. "Well, she's kind of a bit mad. Crazy. And angry. She's British and American mad."

I tapped my pen on the desk, as I often did when I was irritated. "I can't have this conversation right now. Tell your cougar to leave me alone. I'm a happily married woman, in case you forgot," I snapped at the end. Good work, Sookie. You're yelling at him because _you_ dreamt he went down on you. Because that was rational. "Sorry, I just had a rough morning."

He raised his eyebrows at me, obviously confused. "Right then. I'll leave you to it." Bones turned and headed out the door, stopping briefly at my door. "Am I to bring anything for Thanksgiving?"

I shook my head. "Just bring yourself."

He nodded. "I'll bring some wine."

We were all going to need at lot of wine to get through Thanksgiving. That was for sure.

I managed to hunker down in my office and work my ass off, which was good because I'd taken a couple of days off while Eric was here. In order to avoid any awkwardness for the rest of the day, I skipped out at four thirty to meet my new step son-in-law.

I adored Johan. He was almost like a cuddly teddybear of a man, with his dark curly hair, brown eyes and usually smiling features. He also had this sort of calmness about him that I could really appreciate when I was trapped in a house full of Northmans. We met at Tiffany, but it was obvious after about ten rings that this wasn't what he had in mind. "They just don't look like her, you know?

I shrugged. I didn't disagree, thinking about Stel in ring form. She wasn't really a Tiffany girl. Not in the classic solitaire sense. She was more Soho than fifth. "She likes vintage stuff. Have you thought about a vintage ring?"

He thought about it. "No, but it's a good idea."

Fifteen estate jewelers and pawn shops later, we wandered into a tiny store that we almost passed. It had a great rating online, and was run by the most adorable and ancient old man. We peered over the case, examining his wares. "What do you think?"

And there it was, I knew, from the look on his face, looking up at us from the dusty display case. "That one, with the blue stones," he said, more excited than I'd ever seen him. "Can I see that one?"

The man behind the counter pulled out his loupe, and the case. "This one is very nice. From the thirties. One carat stone, very few inclusions, good colour. The sapphires make it very unique. I've never seen a setting quite like this." He handed it to Johan, and then looked at me. "It's for you?"

I laughed. "Oh, no. I already have one. It's for my stepdaughter."

He nodded, a slightly playful look on his face. "Wonderful. You like? There's an appraisal office two blocks down. You can take it and get it checked out."

Johan hadn't said anything else. He just kept turning the ring over in his hands. "I'll take it."

I cut in, as the voice of reason. "Once we get it appraised. And then we can talk price."

The old man smiled at me. "Of course missus. We can finish this tonight. I don't do sizing here though."

We got it for five hundred under Johan's budget, after an insane about of dickering. He tucked the box in his coat when we finally got on our way. "I owe you one, Sookie." He smiled.

I patted him on the back, as we got into my car. "You watch my kids all the time. In fact, I may need you to watch them so I can go take care of some things before Eric gets back. Are you free tomorrow evening?" I desperately needed a wax. It was so overdue, but I hadn't really had any reason to take time out of my schedule to take care of it.

He nodded. "Sure. Do you think Stel knows anything's up?"

I shook my head. "You'd know if she did, because she'd be bugging you every five minutes to tell her what you're hiding. You'd pretty stealth though. I'm sure she doesn't suspect a thing."

He snorted. "After six years, I'd hope she'd suspect something. I'm thirty in a few months. When did that happen?"

I shrugged. "I don't know where time goes."

We went back to our place, picking up some Chinese food on the way for the adults. The kids should have long been in bed, since we'd been longer than I thought. I gave Johan one more pat on the back as we pulled up. "I'm going to wait a minute so she doesn't know we were together." He winked.

"Good plan. So where were you?"

He thought about it. "Working on my thesis."

"And I was getting waxed." I laughed. "God, I didn't need to tell you that. Better yet, pretend I didn't say that." I knew I was red as a beet. "You don't need to know about my grooming habits. Shit, if I use that excuse today, what will I use tomorrow when I really need to go?"

"It's fine, Sookie." He was also blushing. "Tomorrow you can be working late."

I nodded. "Right. I'll be glad when she just knows. I'm terrible at keeping secrets."

I walked in quietly, listening for the kids. There was mumbling upstairs, and I left the food on the table and crept up.

I rubbed my eyes, as I took in a sight I was not expecting.


	10. Mr November

**So you guys like a cliffie, huh? I'll keep that in mind! Thanks SO much for all the love on the last chapter, and keep it coming! I love hearing what you guys think!**

* * *

**Sookie**

And all sitting on Max's bed, were him, Stel, Ceci, Lily and Eric.

Wonderful, perfect, in the flesh Eric. I rubbed my eyes, unable to control the huge grin on my face. "What are you doing here?"

He stood up, and I was engulfed in a big, giant, amazing Eric hug. I'd almost forgotten how tall he was. And handsome. So handsome. "I passed off my marking on my teaching assistant and switched my flight. I didn't want to be there if I could be here."

He felt so good in person. Beyond good. I felt tears well up behind my eyes. "I don't know what to say. It's just, well, you're here."

He pulled away, his eyes meeting mine. God, he was handsome. It wasn't that I'd forgotten since I'd been seeing him over Skype, but nothing compared to real life Eric. "I was going to call, but I thought this might be more fun. I just figured out I could do it yesterday and switched my ticket to standby."

"And he brought presents!" Ce squealed, holding up some sort of weird purple stuffed animal. "And treats for tomorrow."

Max was quiet, but had a perfectly content look on his face. "I got an Eiffel Tower puzzle. It's taller than me."

I wrapped my arms around Eric's waist, unwilling to deny myself physical contact, even for a second. "Very cool. You guys still need to go to bed though. It's really late. Dad'll still be here tomorrow."

We heard Johan arrive, and Stella got up and went downstairs, while we finished tucking our rather stoked kids into bed. They didn't go easy, but eventually they couldn't keep their eyes open, and we used that to our full advantage, sneaking out quietly after flicking on their nightlights.

I felt my heart practically jump out of my chest as Eric slammed me against the wall just before the stairs, and placed this amazing, toe curling kiss on me, his hands stuck to either side of my face. "Let's get rid of one more kid, and then it's just you and I," he whispered.

I realized that my face hurt from grinning so much. "I can't wait. I love you."

His eyes lit up at my words, as he reached for my hand. "I love you too. I've missed you so much.

Stella and Johan hung around for a half hour or so after the kids went to bed, and I cracked a bottle of wine, not wanting to rush them out, since they hadn't seen Eric in two and a half months either. I hadn't really thought about it, but I was going to have to share him. A lot.

They both chatted for a bit about their school work, and Eric told them about the project he had started as well. Unfortunately, the conversation eventually shifted to Thanksgiving.

"So he's coming for dinner." Eric raised an eyebrow.

I groaned, at least somewhat happy that we were discussing this in person. "He doesn't know anyone, and then Bill and Selah invited themselves, and Pam and Alcide were coming anyway. I figured what was one more. That's it. And I thought you wouldn't be so weird if you met him."

He grinned. "Or it might be weirder. You know how I am."

Stella rolled her eyes. "He's nice Dad. And very posh. That accent," she giggled. "I bet it's a real panty dropper."

Johan shot her a look. "It's an accent. So what?"

I wanted to tell him that I'd probably made it as weird as it could get with my overactive imagination, but I felt like going there wasn't the best thing I could do when I hadn't seen my husband in a couple of months. "I've missed you like you wouldn't believe."

Eric pulled me into his lap, and buried his face in my hair. "I would believe it."

Stella cleared her throat. "On that note, it's time to go. Johan?"

He grinned, before standing up. "I guess you don't need our help tomorrow Sookie?"

I shook my head, revelling in the feeling of Eric wrapped around me. "I think we have it under control."

Stella shrugged. "Then we'll see you for Thanksgiving."

They kind of rushed out the door, and I turned around so I was straddling Eric's lap. "I can't believe you're really here. It didn't seem like you were coming back some days."

He pulled his arms around me tighter. "Tell me about it. Are you working late tomorrow?"

I laughed, because what else could I do, but laugh. "No, I was going to get waxed. Listen, I'm really, really happy to see you, but I'm probably going to hop in the shower before I show you just how happy I am. I'm disgusted with myself, really, I am."

He rolled his eyes at me."Wait till you see me without a shirt on. You're disgusted? I've been eating cheese and bread for almost three months straight. And you know what? After not seeing you for two and a half months, there's no way in hell I'm leaving you alone to shower."

I kissed him again, quite reluctant to break contact. "Can you turn your back while I shave my legs at least?"

He gave me a somewhat sleepy smile. "Sure. What time is it?"

I peered at the clock on the DVD player. "It's got to be after eleven. Work is going to be terrible tomorrow. I wish I'd known to take the day off. And Claudine will be here in the morning. Shoot."

Eric shrugged. "We'll pay her for the day anyway. I can handle Ce without backup. Sook, she's so grown up."

I sighed. "I can't even talk about it. She's going to be teetering around on heels before we know it and then she'll get engaged, and I'll be old."

Eric chuckled, a huge smile on his face. "Speaking of old, we need to get this show on the road. It's like four in the morning Paris time."

I hopped off his lap and pulled him up. "Come on old man. Show me what you've got."

He looked at me for a minute, before giving me this wonderfully goofy grin, seconds before he threw me over his shoulder. I squealed, as he shoved a hand up my pantleg. "You weren't kidding."

I beat on his back, as he carried me into the bathroom. "It's been cold, and I've been wearing tights and pants. I swear, it was on the schedule. You're screwing up my waxing schedule with this unexpected visit. Now I'll have to wait weeks before it grows back again."

He patted my bum. "Oh, what a shame. You've lost weight as well. What's up with that?"

I snorted as he dropped me to my feet. "I've been running my ass off for three months. It was not intentional, I assure you." I'd worked hard all summer to have a booty bootcamp ass, and now it was practically gone. "I'll probably gain it back over Thanksgiving."

He unzipped my fly, and pushed my dress pants around my hips."Well I have a bit you can have. We can make the exchange later."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Shut up and take your clothes off."

He shrugged and pulled his sweater off, followed by his pants, as I did the same thing, practically racing him to the shower, hoping to distract him from my incredibly hairy lower half.

We were good in the shower. Fantastic even. It was one of our best places. "Now, let me get my legs first, and then I'm all yours."

"I don't really care about your legs. I probably wouldn't have even noticed."

"Lies." I giggled, trying to quickly run a razor over my legs as his hands made their way from my neck to my shoulders, and eventually around to my chest.

"I don't know why anyone thought I'd be distracted with another set of breasts when I have these ones at my disposal," he mumbled into my neck. "Fuck, I missed you."

I quickly finished up, dropping the razor when his hand snaked between my legs, almost causing me to lose my balance. "Let's go to bed. Then we can go to sleep after."

He chuckled at me, turning the shower off. "Not the most romantic thing you've ever said, but certainly the most practical tonight."

We towelled off, quickly making the streak from the bathroom to our room, hoping and praying that we wouldn't have any little visitors in our bed. Luckily, we didn't, besides Lily anyway, who looked kind of annoyed at Eric taking his spot in the bed back. She groaned and curled up at the end of the bed, as Eric and I collapsed in a naked heap, him on top, which was exactly where I wanted him.

I liked the little bit of extra stuff to grab. It just made him a little softer in areas, which was actually a nice surprise. But he certainly wasn't soft where it counted. I shifted my hips, as he held one of my legs up with his arm. We both groaned in unison as he entered me.

"Fuck Sook, you're so tight. I'm going to last like three minutes," he whispered, a smirk on his face. "And that was the least most romantic thing I've ever said."

I laughed, pulling his weight down on me. "You wanted reality, and you've got it. I don't care how long you last, as long as you get me off too."

I didn't even remember falling asleep.

It must have been about six in the morning, when I felt Eric watching me, intensely enough to wake me up. I slowly opened my eyes, smiling at him, here, in our bed. "Hi," I said, stretching, and then curling back into a ball, my head on his chest.

There was something else in his eyes though, something slightly troubled. "I have to tell you something."

I sat up against the headboard, and pulled the blankets around me, really unsure of what he was going to say. I felt a little sick though, simply from the look in his eyes. "Okay?"

"Three nights ago, a little while after I got off the phone with you, this grad student that does my marking, the one I dumped my work on to leave early shows up at my door. It was late, around eleven, and she said she had a few things she needed to talk to me about. I was my usual asshole self, told her I was extremely irritated that she'd come to my home, and said she had five minutes, or she could book an appointment with me. So she comes in, sits on the couch, I sit at the kitchen table, and she starts talking about my work, and how much respect she has for what I do and all of that. The usual grad student dribble. After about two minutes, I tell her to cut to the chase, and she breaks down sobbing, bawling her eyes out crying about how she's going to get kicked out of school because she hasn't done what she was supposed to do."

I crossed my arms, and looked at him curiously."Which was?"

"She was supposed to keep me entertained, she said. I asked her to elaborate, and she just said that she'd been having financial problems and had been made an offer she couldn't refuse. And then she asked me if there was anything she could 'do' for me."

"And?"

He leered at me. "I told her she could do the rest of the grading for the semester, and get the fuck out of my apartment. What do you think I told her?"

I leered right back. "I wasn't thinking you told her anything. I'm not sure why you let her in in the first place though, given the past experience you've had with young, pretty grad students. I'm assuming she was young and pretty?"

He sighed. "Of course. So I'm not sure what kind of game I'm a pawn in. That's what I'm concerned about."

I shrugged. "Like I said, you didn't help your case letting her in, but I trust you. I hope you won't put yourself in a position like that again. It's really a your word against hers situation." I believed him. Absolutely.

He sighed, scratching his head. "I know. I've been thinking about that for three days. I think I let her in because she reminded me of Stel. She's the same age, and smart, and ambitious, and I've been a real asshole to her, for no real reason. Just because I was pissed about being in Paris." He shrugged. "I don't know, Lover. I've gotten a bit soft lately, and not just around the middle."

I patted his stomach. "Don't be silly about your middle. And that's why you came back early? To tell me that?"

"I didn't want you getting an email or a letter from Appius, or whatever else he has cooked up. And I just didn't want to be there, I mean not that I've ever wanted to be there, but I just needed to get out of there, and be here. Everything there is like some fucked up head game. I just needed some reality."

"Well when Ceci beats the door down in twenty minutes, it's about to get really real in here, so I hope you're prepared for that after a few months away." I gave him a half smile. "I don't really know what to say. Like I said, I trust you, and you've not given me reason not to for a long time. Also, I do appreciate you not trying to protect me by keeping things from me like you used to."

He shrugged. "I just don't want this to cause any problems, but I feel like the odds are against that. Someone paid her to try and get her to fuck me. How messed up is that?"

"You academics sure like your dramatics." I scooted over a little closer to him, draping my leg over his. "How are you going to oust Appius?"

"I don't know yet." He raised an eyebrow. "I might have to kill him."

I rolled my eyes. "And then you'll get to spend lots of time with us. I'll really look forward to those conjugal visits. Wait, do you get those if you kill someone?"

He shook his head. "I think they did away with those in most states. No wonder inmates get so riled up about everything."

We lay there for a while, and I listened to his heart beat until the alarm clock went off. I really didn't need any shit from his work. It was enough to manage my own, and no one at my work was quite so set on destroying my personal life as it seemed Appius was. I pried myself away from him, and he pulled on some sweats and an old t-shirt to get the kids going while I enjoyed a most leisurely shower, the most leisurely I'd had in months. I fixed the parts I'd missed during my impromptu shave, and used some deep conditioner Pam had been bugging me about for weeks. It was heavenly.

I got dressed and wandered out to the kitchen to find Eric feeding both happy kids, and a bowl of oatmeal for me, complete with some maple syrup we'd picked up upstate in the summer. "I feel like I'm dreaming, and I'm going to wake up, you'll be gone, Ce will be screaming and Max will be all angsty," I whispered in his ear.

He smiled, pouring us both a cup of coffee. "No tears, no angst. Just oatmeal."

I raised my cup to him. "Marry me, again?"

Eric winked. "Absolutely."

I made it to work while it was still quiet. I loved the office when it was like this, before the drama and the problems began. Before people expected things of me in person. It was the perfect time to see what people expected of me via email.

First email, from the mysterious Annette De Witt. _Subject – Bones is mine._

Whoa. I raised my eyebrows, considered deleting it, but curiosity got the best of me.

_Listen, Bitch. He's mine, and he'll come back to me when he's tired of you. Bones needs a woman with experience, and we love each other. Stay the fuck away from him. _

_Annette. _

I didn't know if I should laugh or cry. I opted to laugh, hysterically, until tears poured out of my eyes. Eventually Lafayette popped his head into my office, a concerned look on his face.

"Sookie, are you alright?"

I shook my head, wiping the tears out of my eyes. "I'm great. Really great. Sit down for a sec."

He smiled, sitting down in front of me. "What's up?"

I'd been meaning to ask for weeks, but I didn't want to get upset at work if things weren't going well with that. "How's Eric's book coming?"

Lafayette shrugged. "He's wordy, but brilliant, but I think you knew that already. Other than that, he's done what he was asked to do by the reviewers. It's a good update."

I smiled, pleased that I'd be able to tell him that. "Great. Everything else okay?"

"Oh yea. Same shit. Nothing you don't know about." He stood up. "I'd tell you if there was a problem. I know you care about that one."

"Thanks, Laf." He was getting a promotion, as soon as we got our new budgets.

About twenty minutes later, Bones came in, and sat down blinking. I smiled at his posh British outfit, consisting of a pair of fitted trousers and a sweater vest over a plaid dress shirt. He was always slightly better dressed than the other editors. I appreciated that. He sighed, propping his head up on his arm. "I am so sorry."

I chuckled. "She is mad. You were right. I just blocked her. Somehow, she's the least of my problems. You'll tell me if she crosses the pond?"

He nodded. "Of course. I don't know what the hell is her problem, emailing you like that. It's not like we're together, or you're available."

I snorted, twisting my wedding band. "No, I think my husband would certainly have a problem with that. I was surprised I even got out the door this morning."

Bones raised an eyebrow. "Oh, he's back early then?"

I nodded, smiling. "Yea, he got in last night. We weren't expecting him for a few days."

He looked at me, in a way that told me that he knew something was wrong. It was kind of weird how well we knew each other after after a few months. "All on the up and up?"

I shook my head. "Oh, Eric's just had some problems with a grad student in Paris. Nothing major. I'm glad to have him for a couple of extra days."

Bones nodded. "Alright then. Again, I'm so sorry. I got a crazy email from her this morning, so I figured you got one too."

We seemed to be okay after my weird outburst yesterday. I'd spent a bit of thinking about my dream yesterday and decided that it was likely caused a few things. Bones and I spent a lot of time together, I was sexually deprived, and I'd been spending a lot of energy worrying about how he and Eric would get along. I really hoped Eric liked Bones. He'd become an important part of my work life, and things would be far easier if they liked, or even tolerated each other. Neither of them were going anywhere. "Want to get lunch today? Sushi?"

He grinned with all his teeth. "Of course Luv. I'll come by around noon."

Of course, around eleven, I got a call from Ceci. "Mom, Dad and me are going to take you for lunch. We're going to come to your office."

Shit. "Baby, can I talk to Daddy for a minute?"

Two seconds later, Eric came on. "Hi Lover. We'll meet you a little before noon? Check out your new office, and my cover?"

Shit shit shit. Eric always hated the covers we picked out. He knew nothing about covers. "I made lunch plans already. With Crispin. Bones."

Eric was quiet for a minute. "Oh."

"Why don't you two come too? You can meet him before Thanksgiving. Maybe you'll be friends by then."

He laughed. "Unlikely. But we'll come anyway."

"We're going for sushi." I don't know why I said that. "So Ce will be happy. We'll get her some California rolls." She just ate the avocado and the rice, but she liked stabbing them with the chopsticks. "See you soon?"

"Oh, Ce is chasing Lil. In a bit." And then he hung up.

I wasn't ready for this today. I needed time to mentally prepare for the weirdness that was about to fuck up my entire afternoon. To give Bones equal warning, I emailed him to tell him that Eric was coming. He responded simply with, 'wonderful'.

Reception called me to meet Eric and Ceci around eleven-thirty. I walked out, taking a deep breath and grateful that the two of them would behave themselves around Ceci. He grinned at me as I popped around the corner, looking incredible in a pair of jeans, boots, his wool coat and Ce's tiny hand in his.

It was moments like these that made me really regret that vasectomy.

"Mommy!" Ce squealed, running up and launching herself into my legs. Yep, wanted about seven more of these.

And then she blew her nose on my skirt. On second thought, two were plenty. "Hi baby. You taking care of Dad?"

She nodded. "We played Candyland this morning. I won."

Eric raised an eyebrow. "She plays games like Pam." Which meant she cheated. "It was great."

I scooped Ceci up and we made our way to my new office. "So this is where the magic happens." I grinned, before getting a flashback to my dream of two months ago. "I mean, it's where I do a lot of work."

Eric nodded, looking at me playfully. "I'll have to come by and look at the proofs with you again when they come in."

We'd done it on a Saturday last time, and fucked in my chair. My chair, that Bones now sat in, in my old office. I raised an eyebrow. "I'll look forward to hearing your feedback."

"And I'll look forward to giving it to you," he smirked.

We passed my old office on the way to the design department, and Ce squealed when she spotted Bones. She tugged at Eric's hand until he followed her into my old office. "Dad, this is Bones," she said, a huge grin on her face.

Bones looked at me, and then at Eric. "Right then, you must be Eric."

"And you must be Crispin." Eric extended his hand. "I've heard a lot about you."

Bones locked eyes with him, firmly taking his hand, and the testosterone flood in the room threatened to wash Ce and I away. "You as well."

Eric smiled at me and squeezed my hand. "All good I hope."

Bones ignored his comment and grabbed his coat. "I guess we're off to lunch then."

Eric looked unimpressed. "We're going to see the cover to my book first."

Bones winked at me. "Boy, he's a demanding bugger, isn't he."

I sighed, and scooped Ceci up, hoping for some female camaraderie, as my work husband and my real husband sized each other up. They were certainly not going to be friends by Thanksgiving.


	11. Evening on the Ground

**And the next chapter is up! Thanks SO much for all the love...you guys are amazing, and I love that you love this story! Keep it coming!**

* * *

**Eric**

Yep, I did not like Bones. I didn't like the way he looked at Sookie with respect and admiration, the way he walked with his cocky strut, or his stupid accent. It would have been easier if he outwardly flirted with her for me to really pinpoint his intentions, but the two of them had it down to this fine professional dance. I didn't think Sookie realized what was going on.

His body language made it very obvious, however. He was absolutely in love with her. And that pissed me off most of all. Not because she'd lead him to believe that was acceptable, I didn't think that, but just because. I was the only one that was supposed to know her enough to be in love with her. Not like, not lust over. I didn't care about that. People could think what they wanted about her. She was gorgeous and intelligent, and a real spitfire. I was certain that there were lots of people out there that wouldn't mind seeing where they could take things with her, if given the opportunity. I didn't like the real feelings though. She was mine to love.

After awkwardly deciding where we'd all sit, Bones and Sookie sat on one side of the table, and Ceci and I sat on the other, me across from Sookie, and Ce from Bones.

"So, Sookie said you're thinking of writing a trade book?" Bones leaned back in his chair, examining me, sizing me up.

"Yea, I've been doing interviews with a wide sampling of couples in Paris. I think people idealize love when they're in romantic settings. That's what the book will be about."

"And we'll probably publish it then?" He glanced at Sookie. "Not exactly a fit for our list."

Sookie raised an eyebrow at me. "I haven't agreed to anything yet. Not until we go through pages on Eric's textbook." She shrugged. "We'd probably publish it out of the trade division. I might even do the editing." She grinned. "I did my ex husband's father's memoirs a few years ago and really enjoyed it."

I shot Bones a glance, verbally marking my territory. "We actually work quite well together, as you can see from this one." I nodded towards Ce. "And I wouldn't have done the first book without her."

Sookie smiled. "It's why I care so much about silly things like the font treatment and spot lamination on the cover. It's kind of our third child."

I liked the cover she'd picked, for the first time. It was a rather abstract, but very sexual photo. A woman's torso partially wrapped in a sheet, with the tiniest bit of side boob. We'd fought for an entire week over the second edition cover. "Except that one makes us money, unlike these ones."

Ce rolled her eyes at me. "I have a piggy bank."

Bones nodded. "Yea, she put up quite an argument for that cover. Niall thought it was too racy, and I'm not sure I don't disagree."

I raised an eyebrow. "It's a sex book. It's racy." Was he a prude? I hadn't expected that.

"Gotta keep the conservatives happy. Can't have kids bringing their overtly sexual books home for spring break and their parents freaking out."

Sookie laughed. "It's not that bad. And if they're paying for the human sexuality credit, then I'm sure they have an inkling as to what that covers." She narrowed her eyes at Bones. "I showed you the other covers on the market. We're not really pushing the envelope more than they are."

Bones shook his head, his eyes smiling at Sookie. "Those covers are bloody terrible, every one of them."

"And ours is beautiful." Sookie grinned. "Eat your sushi."

Yep, she had no idea how he felt, which put me in a incredibly awkward position. Did I tell her what I thought, and risk coming off like a jealous asshole when I was only around for a week, or did I keep my trap shut and deal with it when I was around for good? I didn't think she was going to act on it, which was what I really cared about, but I still didn't like the idea of him loving on her five days a week, and on the occasional evening. Not while I was away especially. I had to admit, the jealous asshole part of me couldn't have been more pleased to see that she'd let the upkeep on her wax go, because it was undeniable proof that she was not fucking around. Not that I'd ever thought she was, but it one more layer of security, that me being away hadn't changed things fundamentally. I really worried that it would.

I decided to play it by ear, and wait to see if an appropriate window opened up to discuss it rationally. The way she looked at me hadn't changed, nor had the way we felt together. We were still good. Better than good. I wasn't going to get anywhere rushing in after months away and making unfounded accusations about a colleague that had supported her during quite a difficult time in her personal and professional life. I would come across like a jealous asshole, and we didn't need that. Not now. Now, we needed to be witty, and loving, and incredibly turned on by each other in person until I had to leave again. I knew Sookie didn't like green-eyed Eric. I wasn't going to let Bones' cutting looks or snippy words bother me. Much. Not this week anyway.

We finished our awkward lunch, and I walked them back to their office with Ceci on my shoulders. When I'd left, there was no way she would have sat through a lunch like that. Now she smiled and looked around and ate most of her food. I had mixed feeling about her being so grown-up.

After a quick kiss goodbye from both of us, Sookie went in to finish her afternoon at work, and we headed home to clean up Candyland. We got home to find Stella doing wash.

I dropped Ceci, who ran off to clean up Candyland on the promise of some chocolate and went into the living room and sat on the couch with my other very grown up daughter. "Hey Stel."

She gave me a half smile, and it immediately became obvious that she'd been crying. "Hey, Dad."

I pulled her to me, wrapping my arm around her as she rested her head on my shoulder. "What's wrong?"

She wiped her eyes. "I don't know. I just feel like everything's weird."

"How so?"

"Johan's just weird. I think he might be fucking someone else."

Ceci picked her head up from the kitchen. "That's a bad word!" Our kids heard their fair share of bad words. It kind of came with the territory of being a Northman. Sookie and I often joked that Gaby's first word would certainly be 'fuck'.

Stella raised her eyebrows. "Sorry Ce. He's just been so unlike him."

"How so?" I knew why he was being weird. It was because he was planning a proposal. And a marriage, and a life. Proposing was a big deal.

"He's been on the phone at weird hours, and he's told me he's doing things that he isn't. Like the other night, he said he was working on his thesis, but when I got home his papers weren't all over the table, and he was weird when I asked him about it."

That's because he was ring shopping with Sookie. I patted the top of her head. "Stel, just don't worry about it, and trust that I wouldn't be telling you that if I thought he was cheating on you. In fact, if I thought he was, I'd be second in line behind you to give him a kick in the balls."

I'd done a lot for Johan. He'd lived in our basement practically rent free for ages, and I'd put in a good word to get him the PhD advisor that he desperately wanted. That, and the laundry, and the meals, and everything else. He'd really been welcomed in as a member of the family. I would not have taken that well.

She turned at looked at me curiously. "How do you know he's not?"

"I just know. Can we just leave it at that?" I gave her a half smile. "Cut him some slack for now."

She wasn't happy with that explanation. "Dad, you can't just say that."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "I certainly can. Drop it, Stel."

She pouted. "That's not fair."

I hugged her again. "Life's not fair. Just trust me."

Ce and I went to pick Max up after school, and he launched himself into my legs, wrapping his arms around them like he never wanted to let go. In front of his friends. I felt pretty special. "Can we go build my puzzle?"

I shrugged. "Sure."

So we did that until Sookie got home. Ceci tried to help, but after a while gave up, opting to play in her room instead. Alone. And quietly. I checked on her a half dozen time, and she just kept smiling at me, her blue eyes twinkling, while she chattered away to herself, making up elaborate stories for her dolls.

Sookie got home around five-thirty, and Max called her upstairs to see the Eiffel Tower in progress. She leaned on the doorway, a tired smile on her face. "You guys are so cute," she said, pulling her heels off. "I'm going to go get some dinner. Coming?"

We ate, and did our routine like we had for years, getting the kids ready for bed, reading to them, and then we made our way to the couch.

Sookie kicked her feet up in my lap and cut to the chase. "You hate Bones, don't you."

I thought about my response for a minute. "I don't hate him, Sookie. I don't like that he seems to have developed feelings for you."

She shook her head. "He doesn't have feelings for me. We're colleagues."

"We were colleagues."

She sighed. "Totally different situation. Different kind of relationship. We're just friends. If that. I'm his boss."

I reached up her dress and pulled her tights off, to better rub her feet and calves. I'd ripped tights in the past, and it never earned me any brownie points. "I don't even think you're aware of it, now that I've seen you together. I do know a thing or two about behavior, and the way he leaned into you when we were looking at covers, and the way you make him smile. It's all over his face. And you're fucking amazing, and gorgeous, and..."

"I think you're wrong. He's just friendly. He's friendly with everyone." She lay back on the couch, giving me full foot access, as I squeezed and rubbed. "I missed this."

I smiled. "I did too, even your smelly feet."

She narrowed her eyes at me adorably. "They're not smelly. Yours are smelly."

I held one up and sniffed. "Totally smelly. Do you think I should go into NYU tomorrow and check in?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Do you think it's going to do any good, in terms of whatever Appius has planned?"

I thought about it. "Probably not."

"Then don't." She stretched out, before flopping onto her stomach. "Can you rub my neck a little?"

"Bring it up here."

She smiled, before turning around and laying her head in my lap. "Oh, now you've got me where you want me, is that it, Professor Northman?"

I chuckled, pushing her hair aside, as I rubbed her back and shoulders. "Precisely. I'm a master at manipulation. You don't even know you're being manipulated. I'm that good. And you're really tense."

"Maybe because I spent all of lunch thinking you were going to pee on me and mark your territory?" She giggled. "You really have nothing to worry about."

"I don't think you're going to run off into the sunset with some hipster Englishman, if that's what you're thinking."

"He's not a hipster. I think he dresses very well. He looks like an editor."

"He looks like he's trying too hard." I laughed as she intentionally rubbed her head against my dick. "Your massage isn't going to last very long if you keep that up."

"That's okay. It's twelve of one, or a dozen of another, as far as relaxation goes." She sat up and grinned, her hair a bit of a disaster. "How's it feel being back? Like you never left?"

"No, it feels like I was gone, and it sucks, knowing I'll have to go again." I pouted. "Being here though, it's great. I knew my life was pretty good, but it's really, really great."

She smiled, mussing up my hair. "It is, isn't it. The next little bit will go quicker though, and then you'll be back for good, and we can focus on making you king of NYU." She cackled maniacally.

"I'd settle for king of psychology." I fixed her hair a bit, running my fingers though it. "And he's absolutely not getting that blowjob now."

"Damn straight," she giggled.

"Hey, I didn't give you your presents last night." I pulled her up. "They're in my suitcase."

She practically pushed me into the room. "What did you get me?"

"Sit on the bed, and I'll find them. There's a few in my suitcase. I kind of bought you things as I saw them. Most of it food, which is in the fridge."

"Wow, this is exciting." She stretched out on her stomach, kicking her feet up behind her like Ceci always did. I'd never really thought about all the ways kids imitated their parents until I had my own, and the ramifications of nature versus nurture really blurred when you saw them every day. "I mean, Ceci's been giving me rocks and things since you've been gone, and snotty tissues and such, but I haven't gotten presents since Pam bought me shoes and a vibrator as a 'sorry your husband's not around' consolation prize."

"Well Pam may have had a bit of input into a couple of things, but just for sizes, and let me tell you, you think taking her to a sex store is awkward, try a lingerie shop when she's your sister." I raised an eyebrow. "I really love you. I hope you know that."

She sighed. "I do. Now show me what you've got me."

I raised an eyebrow. "Well, Mrs. Northman, first up we have a fairly impractical, but sexy bra and underwear set." I tossed them to her. "Sheer, but not too sheer."

She held them up, a huge grin on her face. "Well you and Pam did good. I'll show you how good in a little bit."

I grinned, fishing for my other purchases. "I know you have a few rings, but I wanted to get you another for putting up with this. So I went to Tiffany, but I didn't like anything, but then day when I was walking, I found an estate jewellers that had just what I was looking for." I pulled the little box out of my suitcase.

She opened it, and a huge smile spread across her face. "I won't ever tell anyone you're so romantic. They'd probably never believe me anyway."

I hadn't really believed my luck when I'd spotted the tiny ring with our birthstones alternating. The only reason I even knew mine was because my mother had always worn a pendant with mine and Pam's on a necklace. I knew Sookie's from past jewellery purchases I'd considered. Blue and red. Quite opposite on the colour spectrum, but so often used together to create a beautiful contrast. "It seemed kind of French, with the blue and red stones too. And I figured you could wear it with the other ones."

She slid it on, smiling when it sat perfectly on top of the other three. "You're going to have to get me a bigger finger if you keep buying me these. I love it though."

"And then there's some wine, and some cheese, and some chocolates in the fridge too. Pam thought I should bring purses and shoes, but that seems like more her thing to buy you."

"You'd be right about that. And you brought yourself back, and that's a pretty incredible gift in itself." She rolled onto her back. "Come lay with me for a bit."

I closed up my suitcase and stretched out beside her. "I missed just doing this too, as much as anything else."

She rolled onto her side, a smirk on her face. "Will you kiss me anyway? We can do this lots when you get back and we have lots of time. Hold each other, braid hair, and talk about our feelings, all of that."

I pushed my lips against her and shifted so we were closer to each other. "But tonight?"

She pushed her lips against mine, my face in her hands. "I wanted you inside of me like ten minutes ago."

I growled a bit at her words, pushing her onto her back and moving on top of her. "I got Pam's assurance that she'd watch the kids for our Fuckaversary. We may have to take Gaby for New Years, but I don't care."

"So you've got big plans in the works?" She giggled, as she pushed my jeans down with her feet.

I sat up and pulled my shirt off, followed my hers. "I think you'll approve. And let's face it, it's never the setting that makes it a great day."

She giggled, before pushing me against the headboard so she could straddle my lap. "You're right about that."

I'd just pushed inside of her, when we both froze, as the front door slammed. "What the hell was that," she whispered, as she pulled herself off of me and went for her robe.

"You stay here. I'll go check," I whispered back, pulling on my jeans, which was far from comfortable in my current state.

She shook her head. "No way. I'm coming too."

We crept through the living room and into the kitchen, where Stella was hauling a huge suitcase up the stairs. Her face was red and blotchy, even in the moonlight.

"What are you doing?" I said, in my regular voice. "It's almost midnight."

She gasped, dropping the suitcase down the stairs. If she hadn't woken the kids up before, she certainly had now. In about five seconds, a very sleepy Max appeared at the top of the stairs.

She looked around at the chaos she'd caused. "I broke up with Johan. Can we talk about this tomorrow?"

Sookie and I looked at each other, and then at Max and Ceci, who were both looking down at us. "Fine. It's fine. We'll talk in the morning," I said, before grabbing her suitcase for her, and putting it in the spare room, which had been our old bedroom. "I love you, but I think you've made a mistake," I whispered, kissing her forehead.

"Well, we'll see about that, I guess." She shrugged, exhausted. "I don't want to talk about it right now."

I went over and managed to convince the kids to get back into their beds, and then joined Sookie in the kitchen, and smiled as she pulled a huge chunk of chocolate that I'd brought back out of the fridge. "Shit," she mumbled, taking a bite before handing it to me.

"Shit indeed," I said, taking a bite. "I guess we should go back to bed."

"Nothing kills the mood like a pre-engagement break-up," she whispered, putting the rest back in the fridge, despite Lily's pleas. "But I do have to work tomorrow, and probably late since I'm off for a bit of next week. Are you going to be able to deal with this?"

I shrugged. "I guess I have to. I'll try to keep Pam out of it." Pam and Stella were kind of explosive together, sometimes in a good way, but usually in a terrible way. "She's back from the Bahamas tomorrow." I didn't even want to think about that. Pam's reactions to things weren't always what they should have been. "I'll fix this. It's just a misunderstanding. She came to me earlier and said that he'd been acting weird and I told her to let it go for now. That it wasn't what she thought."

Sookie narrowed her eyes at me. "You should have just told her and then insisted she act surprised when he asked. I don't know why you men have this need to surprise us all the time. We don't like it." She grinned. "Well, I mean, I liked when you were here the other day, but I would have liked it just as much if I'd known."

After a rather restless sleep for everyone it seemed, Ceci and I crawled back in for a bit for a bit the next morning, after Sookie took Max to school. From the way she crashed out, I had the feeling she hadn't gotten much sleep the night before. She was a bit sensitive sometimes, and got quite upset when people argued. I'm sure Stella's impromptu appearance confused her. It was almost eleven, when I was woken up by the phone.

I groaned as I answered it. "Hi, Bill."

He sounded incredibly chipper. I wanted to choke him, as Ceci sat up, her little lip wibbly for some reason, probably because she was overtired. "We're still on for Thursday, right?"

"It's not for almost a week, but yes."

"You're back early?" Bill was so oblivious sometimes, especially since he'd married Selah. "How's Paris?"

"It blows. And not in the good way, no matter what keeps getting shoved my way."

He chuckled. "I hear you might be bringing someone else down. That was so fun the last time. Let me know if you need any help."

I glanced at Ceci, and covered up her ears. "Are you willing to seduce the head of my department and let me post the pictures on the internet?"

He laughed. "No. Certainly not. So we'll bring wine and dessert to dinner?"

"Can you bring Brit repellent too?"

"The new editor? I've heard good things."

"He's in love with my wife."

Bill chuckled. "Who isn't."

I groaned again. "You better not be. You know what? On second thought, if you are, don't tell me, because I've actually begun to like you, since I hear you're the reason Max talked to me on the phone for the last three months."

He was quiet for a minute. "I'll always love Sookie, but not in a way that you need to be concerned about. And Max would have talked to you anyway."

I smiled to myself. "See you on Thursday. Bring lots of wine."

"Enjoy your weekend."

I hung up and turned to Ceci, who had a couple fat tears rolling down her cheeks, which were easily solved with some lunch, followed by ice cream.

My other daughter's problems were not going to be so easily solved.


	12. Belated Promise Ring

**Wow, I'm at chapter 12 already? I don't know how that happened! Anyway, thanks so much for all your support, and please let me know what you think! **

**Also, someone asked who I think Bones looks like...the fangirl jury is a bit out on that, but I think I've heard everything from James Marsters, who plays Spike on Buffy (the majority of twitter peeps pick Marsters), to Henry Cavil, or Gabriel Aubry...if you're a Bones fan, who do you picture? He's kind of veiled on the covers of the Night Huntress books...  
**

* * *

**Sookie**

I knew things weren't good when I came home to find Stella curled up on the couch in the fetal position, and Eric and the kids gone.

I sat down at her feet and handed her a piece of the chocolate I'd made a beeline for when I got in the door. "Where's my family?"

She took it and looked up at me. "They went to see Pam. You can go over if you want. I didn't want to."

I looked at her sad eyes, dark from not sleeping. "God, tell me Eric told you why he'd been acting weird."

She shrugged. "Yea, he told me. It doesn't change much though. Sookie, we never even talked about getting married. I feel like we should have at least had a conversation about it, you know?"

And then I told her something I really wished someone had told me ten years earlier. "Stel, men are idiots. They don't think like women, or at all sometimes. I'm sure he assumed it was what you wanted, and was trying to be romantic about it."

"He didn't tell me though, even though we were fighting. I thought we'd decide together when we wanted to get married. We have a very egalitarian relationship, for the most part. And he asked Dad? What the fuck is that about?"

I remember when there was a time I'd cried for an entire afternoon because Bill had had no one to ask for me when we got married. How times had changed. "Covering his bases?"

She rolled her eyes. "We're not traditional. Why is he trying to force us into this traditional box all of a sudden?"

I thought about it, in terms of my own life. "You know, I think in a lot of ways, men really like the idea of marriage. I didn't care with your dad, not really, anyway. Not as much as he did, and he's far from traditional. Hell, we got married like three days after I got divorced. It was kind of wild. Anyway, I guess being traditional in that sense is important to Johan."

"You know, if I ever envisioned getting engaged to, it would have been part of some silly moment we had, and he wouldn't even have a ring. He'd just ask me, because the moment struck him, and he decided he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. I didn't want him to think about it for three weeks and go buy me some cookie cutter ring. That's not us at all."

I smiled. "Stel, I went ring shopping with him. It wasn't like that at all. And he didn't plan it for ages or anything. And for the record, he picked a very you ring at an estate jeweler. Nothing from Tiffany."

She softened slightly. "I don't know. I just don't know how I could have just been left out of this very big decision in this day in age."

"Again, back to men are idiots. Has he called you?"

She shook her head. "I told him not to."

"Well then you should call him, and at least talk it out, now that you have all the information. You guys have been together for six years. That's a lot to let go of."

She glared at me. "I know it is."

Yep, the Pam shone through, from time to time, especially when it came to being stubborn. "Okay, well, I'm going to go over to Pam's then. Give you some alone time."

"Thanks," she mumbled.

Pam and Alcide's condo was kind of ridiculous, but I had to admit I was a little jealous whenever I visited. I had no idea what kind of cleaning staff she employed to keep things white and pristine with a two year old. My kids were like tiny bulls in a china shop when we visited.

I smiled, smelling something delicious as I got off the elevator. Maybe duck. I was starving.

Eric and the kids, as well as Pam, Alcide, and Gabby, in a tiara were seated around her huge dining room table with an amazing spread. "You started without me?" I said with a grin, sitting next to Eric and squeezing his hand.

He smiled. "Well at first we weren't sure if you'd come and then we figured you'd catch up, and the kids got tired of waiting."

Ce grinned, holding a carrot dangerously close to the white linen placemats. "Aunty Pam made it."

Pam snorted, her tan setting off the white everything perfectly. "Kids will believe anything. It's catered. I had Yvetta arrange it." She smiled at their maid, who was busying herself with what looked like coconut cake in the open kitchen. I would have hated Yvetta working for me, since she was stunning and about twenty-five, but it didn't seem to bother Pam.

Perhaps for obvious reasons.

We all dug in, and chatted about rather mundane things. When Pam got up to the washroom, I leaned over and whispered in Eric's ear. "Did you tell her about Stella yet?"

He shook his head. "Nope. Thought we'd have a nice dinner before she tells me what an idiot my kid is." Pam adored Johan, probably more than Stella did. Certainly more than Stella did right now.

"Awesome." I grinned, raising my eyebrows at Alcide across the table. "How was the Bahamas?"

"Good. I played lots of golf." he grinned at Gaby, who was making a worse mess than either of my kids. "How's the new job?"

"Good. Busier than the old one."

We acknowledged each other somewhat silently. We weren't very close.

After dinner, Alcide and Max went off to play some video game on his Wii, Ceci curled up on Eric's lap and went to sleep like Lily did sometimes, and Gaby went to bed in her room.

Eric cut to the chase. "Pam, Stella and Johan have split up. She's staying with us for now."

Shit, was she still going to be there when Eric left? I didn't know if I had it in me to take care of an angsty twenty-something plus two kids. "We're hoping they'll work it out. I think I may have had her convinced to call him when I left to come over here."

Pam narrowed her eyes at both of us. "That girl is a fool."

Eric raised an eyebrow at her. "That's not for us to decide."

Pam crossed her arms. "Well that's going to make for a lovely Thanksgiving. Maybe you can set her up with that handsome subordinate of yours Sookie, the British one."

I nearly choked on my white wine spritzer. "No, I don't think we'll be doing that. I still think they can work it out. They both want the same things, but they had very different ideas of what it would look like, that's all. I think if they talk it out, then they'll be fine. Just fine."

Pam sighed at Eric. "She doesn't know us very well, does she?"

Eric shrugged. "We're good at talking, her and I. I think we're the exception though. That's probably why she's mistaken." He looked at me. "My guess is that she goes into stubborn mode and that's the end of it. Look at Pam and Alcide. It took her years before she talked to him again when she got gun shy."

"That's just one example. I don't think they'll do that." I furrowed my brow. "I think they'll work it out."

Well, I wasn't completely wrong, but I wasn't exactly right either.

The rest of the weekend was a series of sobbing and screaming matches in my living room, and when we were lucky, the basement, while Johan and Stella attempted to work through their issues. Finally, by late Monday evening, Eric had had enough.

He raised an eyebrow at me from our new home in the kitchen since we'd been all but barred from the living room, before making the step I'd been banking on him making for days."Look, Stel, you're welcome to stay here, but I'm sick of this. You're never going to make up in front of us, so go home and make up already. We don't need to hear your same argument on a loop. We've heard it for three days now. You're upsetting the kids."

She glared at us both, and they gathered up their winter gear and left. "Why the hell did that take you three days?" I said, my head in my hands.

He blinked, before sighing loudly. "I didn't want her to feel forced out, but fuck, I'm over it. They're ridiculous. I didn't think Johan had it in him."

"I need a glass of wine. Thank God I haven't been working."

"This was supposed to be a nice week," he groaned. "And while it's been nice to be home, I certainly could have done without this."

**Eric**

Sookie stood up, her hands on her hips. "You're the reason it's happened. If you'd just told her, then she probably would have been fine."

I rolled my eyes, and leaned my head back."Can we not fight about this too? Haven't we heard enough fighting?"

"We're not fighting about it," she snapped. "I'm going to bed."

"Fine." I stood up and followed her in. We hadn't had sex since Stella interrupted us on Thursday. Clearly fighting wasn't good for anyone. I hated seeing my daughter so ripped up emotionally. We both undressed without a word and crawled into bed. "You know, I wouldn't care so much about this, except it's really messed up our time together. I thought we'd get to go for dinner, and spend some time together. Instead, we've been comforting the kids all week."

She pouted. "I know. I thought we'd have a happily engaged couple on our hands by Thursday. Maybe they went home to have make-up sex and she'll come by with a ring tomorrow."

"I don't want to think about my kid having make-up sex, but I hope you're right."

She sighed. "We need to go grocery shopping tomorrow. I don't know how we got stuck hosting this when Pam has a catering service."

"We can cater dinner if you want. I don't care."

She sighed. "Does it make me a failure if I order in? It's like ten people, plus kids. Shit. What the hell was I thinking?"

I wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "How did we end up doing this?"

Sookie shrugged. "Well, it was just Pam, and then it was Stella and Johan, and then Bill asked if we wanted to go to their place, and I said no, because Selah is a terrible cook, so then they were coming, and then his mom needed somewhere to go because Lorena is a bitch, and then there was Bones. I don't know."

I patted her head. "Next year we'll go to the Hamptons, where there's only a table for four. And let's see what we can order in."

She exhaled loudly. "You see, if you were here, you would have talked me out of this. You're not allowed to go again. I'll put you on house husband duties if anyone asks you again."

"Chained to the slowcooker?" I laughed. "Barefoot and pregnant, perhaps?"

She snorted. "Minus the pregnant. Did you not just deal with three days of a screaming adult child? I think we're done there."

"I agree. Wholeheartedly. One more Northman woman is all the world really needs."

Sookie grinned. "She's a Stackhouse too. See how well she entertains herself and how good she is in social situations? Those are not Northman traits."

"Fair enough." I smiled, as she straddled my lap, and I wrapped my arms around her back. "Hi there."

She buried her face in my neck. "I'm not ready for you to go again."

I moved her head so we were face to face, and I moved the hair out of her face "It's three weeks. And then I'm back for good. We can do three weeks standing on our heads."

She sniffed a little. "I know we can do it, but I don't want to."

"And that's fine. I don't want to either. I get to go back and deal with that grad student," I kissed her. "and you're not there, and I don't want to be anywhere that you're not."

We woke up late the next day, finally forced to open our eyes when the kids came to join us around nine. We all cuddled for a while, all of us seemingly pleased to be free of Stella's woes, at least for a little while. Max said she hadn't come back last night, so I took that as a good sign.

It was nice to have Sookie home and not at work for a few days. I could almost see her getting more relaxed as she found someone to send over a turkey with all the fixings, and with her and I at the grocery store, the kids were easy to manage. We spent a wad on appetizers and other things, deciding that we'd try and do a soup in the slow cooker, and throw together a salad.

Stella came back for the night that evening, simply saying that they'd decided to give peace a chance and that Johan would be coming for dinner. There was no ring, but she certainly seemed more relaxed.

Which was good, because it meant I didn't have to kill him.

After some careful negotiating, Stella agreed to watch the kids on Wednesday evening so Sookie and I could go for dinner. She also agreed not to have Johan over, because I didn't want them getting back into around the kids.

We went Mexican, once again sliding into our little table and sinking into our little Eric Sookie bubble, safe from all the horrors of the outside world. After a few margaritas and a tequila shot, and Sookie's foot oh so carefully in my lap, I leaned across the table. "Let's get a hotel."

"Only if you call Stella," she giggled. "I'm wearing my new underwear."

Needless to say I called, and after listening to her whine about breakfast, she agreed. But only if Johan could sleep over as well. At that point, I didn't care, as long as she promised not to inflict any psychological damage on the kids in any way. She agreed.

"We're good." I said, as she continued stroking me with her foot. "But we're going to have to get in a cab soon, so let's save that for the hotel, unless you want our waitress getting an eyeful."

She grinned devilishly, sliding her foot back in her shoe. "Fine."

We called around and ended up getting a room at the Hudson, and after another drink, we got in a cab and made our way over, looking like a couple of fools, as we checked in.

"The receptionist thinks we're having an affair," Sookie whispered, giggling as we got in the elevator. "She was ring checking."

"We do look a bit sneaky, and we don't have any luggage," I whispered back, pushing her up against the elevator wall and kissing her hard. "And married people don't have hotel liaisons. We're supposed to be having missionary sex on Saturday nights for thirty minutes a week."

"If you're only going to last thirty minutes, we wasted the hotel room," she whispered, going for my belt as I fumbled with the room key. "And we could have just done it in the cab, or the coat closet at the restaurant."

I snorted. "Listen to you. Who knew you were such a fan of exhibitionism?"

She tugged at my pants, adorably irritated with the button fly on my jeans. "You did. But this is better for tonight."

When we woke up the next morning, I had the mother of all headaches, and from Sookie's serenading in the bathroom, it was obvious that she felt even worse than I did.

"How much did we drink last night?" She groaned, looking up at me from the toilet, her eyes bloodshot.

"I don't know. I have a mother of a headache though. We should get home. It's nearly checkout time."

Her eyes went wide. "Like, it's almost noon?"

I nodded. "Eleven-thirty. I sent Stel a text to tell her we were on our way, and she said it was fine, which I guess means her and Johan are okay."

"Everyone is coming at four. Shit, Eric." She washed her face and tugged on her clothes from last night. "We have to go."

"Stella's going to clean the kids up and run the dishwasher. The food's not coming until three. We're okay." I pulled my clothes back on, glancing at my hair in the mirror and quickly realizing that without a shower, there wasn't going to be much I could do with it. "Come on, we'll get a cab, and we'll get home, and everything will be fine."

She frantically checked the room, making sure we weren't leaving everything. "Except I feel like I'm going to..." And then she rushed to the toilet.

I sat on the floor beside her, holding back her hair, since that was one of the unspoken marriage vows we'd once joked about. For better or for worse, for drunkenness or sobriety. I patted her back, as she finally picked her head up. "You'll be okay. We'll stop for some grease on the way home and get some water in you."

She looked at me, pouty. "I haven't drank like that in years. I think they made those with extra tequila. I was thinking it when I was drinking it. And we missed McDonald's breakfast."

"We'll find something." I pulled her up. "Come on now."

She let me get her out the door, and we checked out and got a cab uptown, stopping for some fries on the way. When we got in the door, it was chaos, with Pam, Alcide, and Gaby already there, and our kids still in their pyjamas.

"We're parent fail," Sookie whispered, as we pulled our shoes off.

"Pam sleeps with maid," I whispered back. "And Alcide doesn't care, because he sleeps with her too."

She grinned. "I knew it. And that does make me feel better."

"Do you suppose they'd cut us some slack if we showered together, in the interest of saving time?"

She shook her head. "Not a chance."

So we traded off, me getting the kids ready while she showered, and her starting the sides while I cleaned up. I felt bad, because I knew she was still retching in the toilet every so often, but it seemed to be passing slowly. Pam was, of course, rather useless when it came to dinner prep, instead opting to make a job of ignoring Stella and innocently flirting with Johan.

Still no ring on her finger. She noticed me looking, and gave me an eye roll. "Don't go there, Dad," she whispered, catching me in the basement trying to find some wine.

"I wasn't going anywhere. It's your life."

She leaned against the wall, scuffing her toe on the floor. "I'm going to move back with him, but we're not doing that right away."

"Whatever. Like I said, your life. I just want to see you happy." I passed her some wine. "Now, I'm going to vanish for ten minutes and go and check on Sookie. She's not feeling great."

Stella's eyes went wide. "Jesus Christ, she's not pregnant again, is she? I don't want to babysit a third kid. Your two are enough." And then they went wider. "But you haven't been here, so it wouldn't be yours. Dad, what's going on? Did Sookie cheat on you?"

I rolled my eyes at her. "Because we plan our family around your babysitting desires. No, she's not pregnant, and of course she didn't cheat one me. She's hungover. We both are. So don't push it today."

She chuckled. "You guys are like children. Or maybe teenagers."

"Look, when you've got two kids and you haven't seen each other in months, then you can judge. Now, take this wine upstairs and don't speak a word of this to Pam."

I found Sookie in the upstairs bathroom with Ceci sitting beside her, crosslegged. "Dad, Mom has a tummy ache."

I leaned in the doorway. "Yes, she does. Sook, you going to be okay?"

She turned around, pale and sweaty and nodded. "How much time do I have?"

"An hour."

"Shoot." She pouted. "Nothing's ready."

I shook my head. "I started the soup and they just dropped off the catering. Bill's bringing dessert, and Pam brought some gelato and a cake. We're fine. Stella is sorting out everything the caterer brought."

"You and Daddy look tired." She stood up and patted Sookie's head. "I'm going to go play with the baby." She took off in search of Gaby, who would always be the baby to her, even though they were only a couple of years apart.

"We do look tired." I chuckled, rubbing her back.

"We're too old for this." she groaned, pulling herself up. "Maybe I have food poisoning. I don't think I've ever been this sick."

"Please don't taint our Mexican place with your lies, woman." I raised an eyebrow. "You are awfully sick."

"Well we have guests, so I guess I'll have to be sick later." She linked her arm with mine. "Besides, I have to make sure you don't alienate my most valuable colleague."

"Oh, I'll be a perfect gentleman." I winked at her.

She rolled her eyes. "I don't think you know the meaning of the word."

We made our way downstairs, and I herded the kids into the kitchen, while Stella and Sookie finished setting the table.

Bill, Selah, Liz, Charlie and Zoey arrived about ten minutes late, griping about traffic, and carrying a lot of wine and pie. Bill nudged me as he walked by.

"The ghost of husband future hasn't arrived yet?"

I nudged him back. "You think you're funny, huh?" I raised an eyebrow at him. "The buck stops here."

"I'm just kidding, of course." He chuckled. "Sookie wants me to talk to him about editing a book of ethics readings, so you're off the hook for small talk for a while anyway."

I smiled. "I am capable of being civil."

He snorted. "Like you used to be with me? I wasn't a threat then either and you were a complete and utter asshole. But maybe you've grown. Matured. Does this mean I don't get to look forward to a dinner full of sexual innuendoes about how you're sleeping with Sookie? Because that's really why I'm here."

"There are children present. There may be innuendo, but it will be well veiled," I smirked. We both glanced at the door as we heard footsteps at the door. "Now, if you'll excuse me, our final guest has arrived."

Bill grinned. "This was totally worth a few pies and some wine. I'll see you inside, Northman."

"Blow me, Compton," I muttered under my breath, as I opened the door. "Crispin, welcome to our home."

Not.


	13. You Don't Know Me

**So I know a few people wanted to hear from Eric, but I found a more suitable narrator, who had just been dying to share with everyone how he was feeling. So without further adieu, Bones. Let me know what you think!**

**Thanks so much for all the love!**

**PS. Sorry for all the weirdness with this chapter. I don't know what FF is doing tonight, but it's making it really hard to post this.  
**

* * *

**Bones**

Eric answered the door, a bit of a bemused smile on his face. Cocky bastard. "Crispin, welcome to _our_ home."

I smiled politely, refraining myself from chuffing him in his arrogant grin. "Thanks so much for having me. I'm getting off on the right foot with your holidays, having dinner with such a lovely family."

That statement wasn't a complete lie. Sookie and the kids were lovely.

From the moment I'd set eyes on her in September, I'd know there was something special about Sookie Stackhouse. She was lovely, sure beautiful, with a certain confidence that not a lot of women her age possessed, and obviously smart, to be in such a senior position before she was even thirty-five. It was once I got to know her a bit that I really realized how incredible she actually was. There were parts of her personality that were so contradictory though, especially when it came to her pretty boy husband.

From what I'd gathered from gossip around the office, she'd left her first husband, the sullen looking philosopher for Eric and started a torrid secret love affair, which had resulted in their son, and a shotgun wedding. He was a notorious womanizer, according to Niall, who had no idea why such an intelligent woman would put up with such philandering. Sam had mentioned on more than one occasion that she'd used him to get ahead, by signing such a big project when she was a novice editor. But why then marry him? Why not just raise the child and take the bastard to town for child support payments? Especially since she seemed to be a single mother anyway.

But she wore the burden of raising her two children on her own, and was doing a wonderful job. They were well spoken and articulate for their age, even if the boy was a bit moody. It was unfortunate that they both resembled his side of the family so closely. Northman seemed to like the children, and they seemed to care for him as well, which was probably a product of them not seeing him very often. I hated the way he tried to be possessive her in front of me at lunch as well. She was a strong, independent woman. She didn't need someone pissing all over her.

I found myself fantasizing about her a little more than I probably should have, taking her over her desk and making her scream my name. I also had the odd more bizarre fantasy about coming home to her after work, eating dinner together, all of that, like out of some fifties sitcom as well. The latter one kind of baffled me, because one thing was certain there was no way Sookie was leaving her job to be a housewife, in fact, I really couldn't imagine it outside the context of that specific fantasy. I don't even know why the thought crossed my mind. I guess somewhere in the deep recesses of my brain, I liked the idea of a stable relationship, and that was what my mind cooked up.

We had a lot in common, Sookie and me, including our working class backgrounds, and a love of reading and books from an incredibly early age. It was the one thing my mother had really made an effort with, when she was between boyfriends and husbands, and lovers. Books were the best part of my life, which is why I'd gotten into what I did for employment.

I was running a bit behind, still unable to gage traffic times, so we all had a glass of wine and made our way to the dining room. Sookie greeted me with a small hug, but was careful to keep her distance with _him_ looking on. As if we would snog in his dining room. She looked completely different after a week in his presence, pale and sickly, with dark circles under her eyes. I was seated between Eric's gorgeous daughter and Sookie's first husband. I wondered how the first husband, Bill, even tolerated being in the same room with the man that had literally stolen his wife out from under him. They seemed to have an odd relationship, which involved poking fun at one another relentlessly. Bill made a bit of small talk with me about a book project which Sookie had mentioned, which was a nice break from the rather forced conversation in the room. Sookie excused herself a few times, a weak smile on her face.

The food was wonderful, which wasn't surprising, as Sookie was an excellent cook. Eric poked fun at her a few times for the potatoes being overcooked, but she took it with grace and dignity, and a bit of cheekiness, telling him that he should have made them himself if he took issue with her cooking.

I tried making small talk with him a few times.

"So, Eric, you're heading back to Paris on the weekend?" I grinned politely.

"Yes, but I'm back in December permanently. I'm quite looking forward to it." He gave Sookie a small smile.

"That's nice then. Just in time to look at the pages for your book."

"Sookie and I always do that together," he said, quite bluntly. "We have since the first edition. I trust her judgment implicitly."

"It's become a bit of a tradition," Sookie said, more politely. "I think it gives us both a bit of peace of mind, since it was such an important project to both of us when we did the first edition."

Eric's sister, who was a bit of stuck up bitch, in a way that reminded me of Annette, piped up. "It's like foreplay for them, all that publishing speak. Font this, art program that. Don't even get me started on what a typo does for them." She chuckled. "It's obscene."

Sookie shot Pam a look. "We're very professional when we're working, Pam."

She glanced at Eric, and then back at Sookie. "Right."

Bill's wife, whose name I'd already forgotten piped up. "Sookie, do you want to come check on the kids with me?"

She smiled, and nodded. "Yea, we should do that. They're being awfully quiet." We all looked on as they made their way to the kitchen.

As soon as Sookie was gone, Stella shot Eric a look. "You two are ridiculous."

Pam shot Stella one. "What are you talking about?"

"Eric and Sookie. They both look like death. Time to grow up, don't you think? Face reality? Because this, what you're doing, isn't working for either of you. You're too old to be doing this shit."

Pam chuckled. "Burning the candle at both ends, were you? Where did you end up last night?"

"The Hudson." He said, kind of eager to change the subject. Back a week, and he was out at a hotel? What did one do at a hotel when they were married, beside meet women? No wonder Sookie looked so sick. "Had a bit too much to drink."

Bill chuckled. "Such a lightweight. Good to know some things never change."

Eric smiled. "Bill, I've been meaning to say I think your taste in wine is questionable. Why are you paying so much for sub par bottles? You can get quite decent wine for less than twenty bucks a bottle."

So he was a wine snob too.

Bill rolled his eyes. "That wine was from my cellar at the old house."

Eric nearly spat his wine across the table. "You did not bring us wine from your old cellar."

I looked between them. "Isn't aged wine preferable here? It is in the UK."

They both looked at each other, and Pam started roaring. "Not from Bill's cellar. It's been exposed to things down there that don't exactly improve the vintage."

"Like vermin?"

Eric chuckled. "Well that's not the worst thing she was ever called, God rest her soul."

Bill shushed him. "Selah doesn't like to talk about her. It makes her uncomfortable."

Pam, Eric, Stella, her boyfriend, and even Bill's mum all about pissed themselves at that comment, and when Sookie came back, she glared at Eric. "Come on now. Private jokes are a bit rude now."

Eric patted her on the back. "I'll check on them next time."

"They're actually behaving. It's a Thanksgiving miracle." She smiled, excusing herself again. "Sorry, I'll be right back."

Pam glanced at Sookie leaving the table. "She's not..."

"No," Eric snapped. "I wish everyone would stop jumping to that conclusion. We're done."

Pam put her hands up in mock surrender, as her baby dumped some peas on her lap. "Hey, I hear you there."

Her husband sat back, a smirk on his face. "So this means you don't want to start trying again?"

"Eff you," she spat, cleaning up the peas.

This was certainly dysfunction at its finest. Eric got up a minute later, and vanished to the bathroom.

After dinner, Sookie pulled me aside as everyone gathered in the living room after dinner.

"Is everything okay?" She asked, a tense grin on her face. "Sorry, my family, or whatever most of these people are are a little hard to handle sometimes. Kind of overwhelming. We all have a lot of history."

I grinned at her. "Oh, it was lovely. Are you alright, there? You look a bit peckish."

She shook her head. "I'm fine. Just not feeling quite myself. How's work been?"

I shrugged. "Not the same without you, Luv. It's been awfully quiet. I think a lot of people took holidays. We got proofs back from the biology book though, and the design is lovely."

She smiled, a genuine smile. "I can't wait to see that. It's our first intro biology book. Quite a big project."

"You're back Monday then?"

She nodded. "Once I ship that guy," she nodded at Eric in the living room, who was snickering at something Bill's mother had said, "off again for a few weeks. The kids are going to be crushed all over again."

"And you?"

She cocked her head, and looked at me curiously. "Me too, of course. I'm a bit better at handling my emotions than a three and a half year old."

"You seem to do alright without him."

She winked. "It's an elaborate act. Wine?"

I shook my head. "I should be off. I've got to finish my Christmas shopping tomorrow so I can ship it off to the motherland before it costs me a mint, and I want to get an early start. Thanks for having me though. Dinner was divine."

She laughed. "Also a rather elaborate act. I'll see you on Monday, and we'll catch up a bit more. Sorry I was so absent tonight. I'm really quite embarrassed about it."

"No need to be embarrassed at all." I grinned, as she passed me my coat. "I'll see you on Monday then."

She leaned in the doorway, as I made my exit. "Good night Bones."

I walked home, enjoying the city in a bit of a lull, since everyone was eating their dinner. The whole visit had left me quite confused. I'd used Annette to move up the social ladder, to gain advantages I wouldn't have had otherwise, but we'd never been a real couple, the kind that loved and supported each other. She was a harpy, and a wench, and we'd both used each other. Maybe that's what they were doing. I wasn't sure. Sookie didn't seem the type.

I wondered if Eric really made her happy. Fulfilled her needs. Because if he did, I wasn't seeing it.

**Eric**

I glanced out into the kitchen as Sookie said her goodbye to Bones. Frankly I was glad he was gone, and his obnoxious presence made me appreciate the odd peace I'd built with Bill even more.

We finished clearing the dishes from the table and threw a DVD on for the kids while we moved the adults to the living room.

Bill grinned at me broadly, as we all sat down. "You know Eric, I like him."

"You're just saying that to be an ass. He's an arrogant prick."

Sookie rolled her eyes from her position on my knee. "He was perfectly lovely today. You're not even giving him a chance."

"I don't like the way he looks at you."

"And you sound like a possessive teenager," she snapped. "We can discuss this later."

And discuss it later we did, once everyone had left for the evening and we got the kids to bed. She dragged me to the basement, where we usually had our fights, far away from the kid's sensitive ears.

"I'm tired of hearing about this," she said, hands on her hips, a truly irritated look on her face. "He and I work together, and that's it. I'm frankly a bit insulted that you'd even been concerned about how I conduct myself."

"I'm not concerned about how you conduct yourself, but I'm frustrated that you don't see that you're egging him on, with your hugs and general kindness. I'm sure he thinks you're attracted to him."

"Why would he think that?"

I shrugged. "You were the one that said he was handsome."

"I think lots of men are handsome. It doesn't mean I'm sending them mixed messages."

I groaned. I knew she wasn't sending everyone mixed messages. "Sookie, you work with him every day. I know you flirt to get what you want from time to time with professors, you've told me that, but it's you and him, every day. Going to lunch, working closely together. No offense, but you're giving him the wrong idea, especially since he just got out of a shitty relationship, and I'm sure he thinks you're in one yourself."

She sat down on the old couch and glared at me. "Why would he think that? I've never given him that impression."

"Because I took off to Europe at the same time you got a huge promotion and left you with our kids? Because we got married while you were pregnant. I'm sure your whole office gossips about that."

"I'm sure they don't," she said, clearly irritated me with me. "And I don't see that that's anyone's business."

I shrugged. "We had a shotgun wedding, in the eyes of everyone but us, and maybe Pam. It's fine, but it is what it is. No one at your work even knew we were seeing each other until you were pregnant. You and I know that we were waiting for your divorce and didn't really care if we did things out of order, but that's you and I, and it's not exactly the kind of thing you bring up at a staff meeting. Let's just call a spade a spade here, and entertain the idea for five minutes that we aren't exactly how we appear. You should be a hell of a lot madder at me for taking off than you are."

"It's not like you had much of a choice."

"You and I know that, but again, not staff meeting material. And I'm sure you're not sharing our deepest, darkest secrets and desires with him. I'm sure he doesn't know about Bill, and the baby we lost, and what we mean to each other, because it's none of his business."

She looked up, thoughtfully. "I don't think anyone thinks badly of me at work."

I shook my head. "I wish you were right, but I think people are horrible gossips, and Bones absolutely thinks I'm a douche."

Sookie sighed. "There's nothing I can do about any of that."

"I know. But just be aware of it."

"I think you're wrong, but I've heard what you said. And for the record, you've been wrong about your handling of a thing or two in the past, and I think I'm doing a really good job with all this change at once."

I sat down beside her. "And I think you are too, but I think perhaps you're not seeing the forest for the trees in the case of your executive editor. I think you're so focused on the job you're doing together that you're not seeing the way he looks at you."

"So you think I'm oblivious. That's lovely." She crossed her arms. "Eric, I'm just really tired of having this conversation. I don't know what you expect me to change. I'm not going to be an asshole to him to placate you, when we have to work together."

I crossed mine as well. "Fine. But I warned you. I just don't want you to have to clean up a big mess of broken hearts and hurt feelings. We already did that once with Bill, and I feel like he's far more rational than Bones, plus you don't have to see him every day."

She threw her hands up. "Why can't I just have a co-worker? I don't know why this has to be some huge thing."

"Because he's in love with you, Sookie, and men in love are idiots. Trust me on that one."

"He's never been anything but professional."

I snorted. "He calls you Luv. How professional is that?"

"You call me Lover."

"After we were lovers. Not before. And you like it when I call you that." I lowered my voice on the last part, wondering if I could change the subject and we could actually enjoy our second last night together for a while.

She looked at me, a small pout on her lips. "You know I do."

"And for the record, I loved our shotgun wedding," I moved a bit closer and whispered in her ear. "And I wouldn't have done it any other way. And I don't give a shit what anyone thinks of that."

"It was all very inconsequential, when you look at the rest of our life together." She smiled.

I nodded. "Exactly. You just have to be aware though that some people see things the way they want to, and even though it's wrong, you have to acknowledge that."

She pulled her hair back in a ponytail. "I still think you're wrong about him."

I shrugged. "I hope I am."

The next two days went by way too quickly, and then it was time for me to go again. This time, Sookie and the kids took me to the airport, and I got to see the sullen looks that Sookie had been subjected to for the week I left first hand.

Max was the worst. "Do you really have to go again, already?"

I nodded, kneeling down beside him. "Yea, I do. Remember though, we'll go ice fishing when I get back after New Years. Mom can mark it on the calendar for you."

"It seems like you just got here though," he said, in kind of a whine. "and I'll miss you."

"And I'll miss you too. Probably more than you'll miss me." I wrapped him up in a hug. "And I need you to take care of your mom and Ce and Lil for me, and be the man for another few weeks. And then I'll be back, and we can share man duty again."

He nodded, a smile on his face. "I can do that."

Sookie was looking on, bleary eyed with Ce in her arms. "Damnit, I wasn't going to cry again."

I wrapped them both up in a hug. "I'm going to go."

"Dad, you're going again?" Ce pouted. "I don't want you to go."

"I'll be back soon. Bye guys."

I only glanced back a couple of times, before they vanished, swept up in the Thanksgiving crowd rush at the airport.

I didn't sleep for this flight, instead subjecting myself to a series of terrible romantic comedies. My apartment was how I left it, with one exception.

A note taped to my door. I tugged it down and opened it, once I was inside, sitting down on my bed.

_It's my word against yours, and I won't sell you out, but you better watch your back. Indira. _

I sighed, reading it over again, before firing off an email to her, asking her to meet me for coffee in the morning. I needed to deal with this sooner than later, and being complacent wasn't getting me anywhere.

I needed a plan.


	14. Love Vigilantes

**So you like Bones? He's a good guy, just a bit confused, perhaps. Thanks SO much for all the love on the last chapter! I'm glad you found it enlightening! **

* * *

**Sookie**

When Eric called after he got into Paris, I could tell there was something weird going on from the tone of his voice.

"What's going on?" I asked, after I shuffled the kids off to the living room. "You're being weird."

"I'm fine," he mumbled. "Just tired."

I guess it was a long flight. "You didn't sleep on the plane?"

"No. But I should sleep now. I'll call you tomorrow morning."

"Okay," I said, unsure what the tone in his voice meant, but not feeling great about it. "Well, I love you."

He sighed. "I love you too. We'll talk tomorrow."

I slept restlessly, happy for one more day until I had to go back to work when I woke up with Ce in my bed, still exhausted.

I'd been thinking a lot about what Eric said about what people thought about us, and I had to admit, it kind of bothered me. I could see how people could reach those conclusions, and Niall had known Eric when he was mooching dinners off of Maudette before I came along.

And he had had that reputation then.

It's funny, how oblivious I was to things sometimes. I did work at work, which was something I was quite proud of. I attributed that to why I'd gotten where I was, and why I was able to go home at a reasonable hour and have a personal life as well. It also meant that I wasn't terribly involved with the social aspect of work, which Sam had always said made me a good manager, since I wasn't personally involved with the people that worked under me, besides a casual dinner here and there.

I knew people were pissy about Sam leaving, but I was surprised that that was the way it came out. And there wasn't a thing I could do about idle gossip. I guess I was the girl that got divorced at twenty-seven, the girl that had was knocked up, technically, and the girl that slid into a very senior position when someone well liked was given the boot unexpectedly.

I probably would have gossiped about me too.

Eric called around eleven, and we talked again for a little while, before the kids practically forced me out the door on the way to the Met. He still sounded a bit weird, but wasn't budging when I asked him about it.

I called him again when the kids went to bed on Skype. I figured the voice combined with the face meant he'd be quite unable to keep whatever was wrong under wraps. That, and after two days of weirdness, I was willing to fight it out, if that's what it took to figure out what the hell was wrong with him.

He answered after a couple of rings, and he looked exhausted. "Hey you," he answered, a forced smile on his face.

I crossed my arms, the laptop on my lap. "Will you just tell me what's wrong?"

"I'm just getting used to the time change again."

"Bullshit."

He sighed, and I noticed that he had a beer in his hand. In bed. "I'm working it out. Just let me work it out, and then I'll explain."

"That's not how we operate."

"Well, it's not going to do much good getting us both worked up when you're thousands of miles away now, is it. I'm dealing with it. It's more of the same."

With the grad student. Shit. "What happened?"

He looked down, his lip tight. "We've just been to a lawyer. I'm handling this properly."

That wasn't a good enough answer. "What's going on?"

"There's some pictures of her coming and going from my place, and someone attempted to pay her off to say we were involved. I had to write her a hell of a letter of recommendation, but she's going to deny we were involved, despite what it might mean for her here."

I looked at him, hard, and tried to imagine him lying to me, in a situation like this, and I couldn't, not really. But he had been away for a long time, and quite lonely, and this was unknown, and something we hadn't faced before, and I was feeling insecure. I had to ask though, to see the look on his face, to know for sure. "Is there anything else you want to tell me?"

He looked at me, hard for a minute. "Are you asking me what I think you are?"

I stared at him back, for a minute. "I'm just asking if there's anything else."

"Good night, Sookie." And with that, he hung up on me.

And I didn't call him back.

I went about the motions the next day, even though I felt sick from the moment I woke up from another shitty night's sleep. I avoided everyone for the whole day, keeping my email correspondence to email, my door closed and my blinds down. I'm sure the office gossips were having a field day, but I didn't care.

Before I realized it, it was time to go home, which I wasn't looking forward to. I wasn't sure how to fix whatever had happened, or fake it around the kids when he called. If he called.

He'd call. He was just angry, and upset about what was happening.

And I'd been a complete and utter asshole.

But then again, so had he, by not wanting to tell me, and then expecting me to just be alright with that. I'd asked a simple question, and I knew he'd been insulted, but I'd been insulted too. And he'd been really rude on Thanksgiving, criticizing my behaviour.

A little knock brought me out of my head, and I got up and answered it, to find a rather dapper looking Bones in a suit. "Just heading out. I hadn't seen you all day. I thought you might have played hookie and just left your light on for good measure," he said, a smile on his face.

I managed a weak smile. "Why are you all dressed up?"

"Interviews for a couple of new sales reps. Calvin asked me to sit in. Everything alright Luv?"

Did I look that distraught? It was probably a good thing I stayed in my office. "Yea, I'm fine. Still getting over my cold from last week." Or my awful hangover. Whatever.

He nodded. "You look better than you did on Thursday. You got your husband off to Paris again?

I nodded, and before I knew it, an errant tear escaped my eye. "Yep, I should get home to the kids. It's their first day with Claudine in a while."

"That fucking perfect wench," he chuckled. "She'd drive me batty."

I smiled, "Thank you. She does drive me batty."

He smiled warmly. "Want to grab a quick dinner?"

I froze, for the first time realizing exactly what Eric was seeing when he saw Bones and I. It was blatantly obvious. I was such an idiot. "I, well, I can't. I should get home."

He looked at me for a minute. "You're obviously upset. I'm happy to listen."

"I just, I'm having a bit of a bad week. I'll be fine." I sniffed, trying to stop from full on crying, which I felt seconds away from doing.

And then he did the worst thing he could have possibly done. He hugged me, and the floodgates burst loose, and I sobbed and sobbed into his suit, for ages. He held me in place, gently shuffling me into my office and closing the door behind us, a move I was grateful for, since there was still the odd straggler left in the office.

I cried for my stupid fight with Eric, for my insecurity about what my co-workers thought about me, my fears about being in over my head at work and at home, for my unfounded concerns about being married to someone that was larger than life in so many ways, but who loved me in every way, big and small.

Eventually, I pulled away. "Expense your dry cleaning, please," I choked out. "I'm sorry. That was ridiculous."

He stepped back a back and leaned against my door. "Not at all. You're dealing with a lot right now, and I don't think you have too many shoulders to cry on."

That wasn't untrue. I hadn't seen Tara since the summer, and it wasn't as though Pam was a great shoulder to cry on. And Eric might as well have been on the moon, when he wasn't part of the problem. "You're a good friend, Bones," I smiled, weakly, as he leaned over and grabbed me a tissue off my desk.

"It's nothing Sookie." He looked down at his feet. "You've been really great for me here too. It's nice to be able to reciprocate in some way."

And then it happened, in a split nanosecond. I felt my hands on my back, unfamiliar, as his lips met mine. I pulled away instantly, like he'd slapped me. I stared at him, in disbelief for a minute, although when I had a minute to process, it hadn't been all that unexpected. "I have to go," I whispered, grabbing my purse and pushing past him.

I walked around for an hour, unable to go home, but unwilling to go back to the office and face what had happened, either in person or in memory. After calling Claudine to see if she could stay for an extra couple of hours, I ended up at Pam's.

She answered in a silky robe, and eyed me critically. "You look like shit."

I shrugged. "Thanks. I have a favour to ask."

She escorted me into her living room, handing me a linen kitchen napkin. "I don't have tissues because we don't cry in this house." She grinned. "What's happened?"

"I need to see Eric. For a few days. We've having some problems."

Pam furrowed her brow, as much as her dermatologist recommended, anyway. "With the grad student."

I nodded. "Yea. I need to be there, and help him sort it out. It's not right, me leaving him to deal with this all alone."

She raised an eyebrow, Northman style. "That's not why you're crying."

"Bones kissed me," I whispered. "We need to talk about it, and I don't want to do it over the phone or over Skype, or anything. We need to be a team, instead of playing on separate teams like we've been relegated to. I never should have been okay with him going if he didn't want to go. Why did I let him go?"

Pam rolled her eyes. "He just kissed you, now?"

I nodded, blowing my nose into her tissue. "Yea."

She shook her head. "He held off longer than I thought he would. I'm surprised Eric didn't kill him at dinner. You realize he'll probably kill him now, if you tell him."

"I need to tell him."

"Yea, you do, but just be prepared to deal with the fallout from that. Eric's a caveman when it comes to you." She reached onto the coffee table and grabbed the most flawless Granny Smith apple I'd ever seen, and took a bite.

I blinked at her. "I can't stop working with him. What am I going to do? I just left after he kissed me."

She shrugged. "My advice? Discuss it with your husband, the sex and relationship expert. And I'll watch your kids, but you have to call that ghastly nanny of yours and tell her that she's not allowed to speak to me. You know my Aeroplan number."

When I got home, Claudine had the kids in bed reading. I sent her on her way and explained that my sister-in-law was incredibly rude, and that she'd be watching the kids for the next week. She said that Eric had already called and spoken to the kids a couple of hours ago, but had left no instructions for me to call him. I called Niall and told him I was taking some personal days since my kids were having a hard time dealing with Eric's absence, tucked the kids in, booked a ticket, and sent Eric an email, apologizing for being an idiot the night before. I didn't want to have another awkward phone conversation, not when we really needed to talk in person.

After that, I threw a bunch of stuff in my suitcase, and settled into another uneasy sleep.

I left for Paris around ten, after dropping Max off at school and making sure all was good with Pam watching them. They knew I was weird, and I felt awful about that, but I needed to sort things out with their dad, or things were going to get a whole lot weirder. These were the kind of rifts that created problems later, the kind of half sharing that had sent Bill and I on the road to ruin. Eric and I were better than that. We shared everything with each other, all the time, and we'd been so off kilter with not being together on a day-to-day basis. We could pretend it wasn't a problem all we wanted, that everything was fine, but deep down, these weren't the kinds of issues we had.

But we were having them. That was undeniable.

I got off the plane, and of course I was overdressed, and it was pouring out. And late. I'd completely lost track of time until we landed and they made the local time announcement. I changed my watch, and got in a cab, the scrap of paper I'd jotted down with Eric's address on it clutched in my hand.

I had awful thoughts on the plane about this being a terrible idea, him not wanting to see me, or worse, me finding something that I was completely unprepared for.

It didn't much matter though, I thought to myself as the cab dropped me off in the rain in front of a lovely building, I was here now.

The front door was unlocked, and I made my way upstairs, until I was in front of his apartment. I stared blankly at the door for a few minutes, my heart pounding, before I raised my fist to knock. I heard his footsteps a few minute later, and I gasped, slightly as he pulled the door open.

"What now?" he said, his eyebrows raised. "Oh." He examined me for a few seconds. "Pam said you'd talk to me later, but this wasn't what I envisioned."

He didn't have a peephole. He hadn't seen the TA when she'd come by that night. She'd caught him completely off guard. I don't know why I'd somehow thought in my mind that it was a calculated thing in any way, him letting her in. That he'd thought it over before opening the door.

That he'd be that stupid.

"I needed to see you," I said, hardly recognizing my own voice. I sounded so sad and broken.

He shook his head, remembering himself and grabbed my bag. "Get in here. You're soaking wet."

I followed him in, and he passed me a towel. It was a lovely apartment, just what I would have imagined, had I had the time to think about where he was staying. Parts were familiar from Skype, and I smiled to myself at the collage of Ceci's artwork on the wall. "Bones kissed me yesterday," I whispered, as he pulled my coat off.

"It was bound to happen eventually," he muttered. "The grad student had an abortion about six weeks after I arrived. That would have been quite the thing for me to tell you over Skype. Appius via Victor financed it. It was some well-known politician's baby, and they thought they could pin it on me. There's no real record of how far along things are; it's kind of a black and white thing. Pregnant, abortion. I didn't even notice. She was always in loose, sloppy clothing, and the huge breasts should have given it away. I wasn't paying attention."

I stood there, kind of shocked. "Oh."

"You didn't need to think about that, not after everything. She's got no money, and had no interest in a baby. The timing couldn't have been more perfect for Appius. I'm sure Victor mentioned the political connection and he just jumped on the idea of sending me here."

I sat down on his couch, and he handed me one of sweaters, and I pulled off my soaked one and tucked myself into it, pulling my knees up to my chest. It smelled like him, which was comforting. "So what now?"

"She's signed something saying it wasn't mine, and that we never had anything but professional contact in case Appius tries to come back with this somehow. I can't imagine he thought this would this would have done anything terrible professionally for me, since I'm sure this happens more than you'd think, but I can see how he imagined this turning the rest of my life into a bit of a tailspin."

"I wasn't paying attention either," I said, leaning into his shoulder as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

He nodded, kissing my forehead, which brought tears to my eyes. "You had lots of other stuff to be paying attention to. Is there anything else _you'd_ like to tell me?" He raised an eyebrow, and gave me a smirk. Even in jest, it wasn't a question that felt good when it was directed at me.

"I'm staying for a week?" I smiled up at him. "I love your place?"

He looked at me, unimpressed. "Did you kiss him back?"

I shook my head. "No. I can honestly say I didn't."

Eric shrugged, wiping a tear from my cheek. "I don't want him in our house. You'll have to sort out the rest with him. But I don't want to talk about that right now."

I nodded. "I understand."

He nodded, a smile on his face, but not a boastful or arrogant one. Simply a smile. "I knew you would eventually."


	15. Melt with You

**For those of you that checked out White Blank Page, see, I didn't forget about the Expat! WBP is already mostly written! This one I do on the fly. Totally different. Anyway, thanks SO much for reading, and letting me know what you think!**

**Also, for those who aren't reading White Blank Page, it's a new fic I started, and you can find it on my profile. It deals with rather mature themes, and I suggest you read the A/N on chapter one before proceeding. With that said, it's been a really fun challenge for me!  
**

**Also, I'm writing this with a burnt hand. That's how much I love you guys. **

* * *

**Eric**

I woke late, smiling to myself when I found Sookie's body spooned against mine, her hair tickling my face, as the late morning sun streamed in on us. It was really surreal last night, her standing in my doorway. And it meant a lot that she was here, firstly because she cared enough about us to stop a hairline relationship fracture from turning into a crack.

And secondly, because I really needed her, with whatever this Appius thing was turning into. It became evident after talking to Indira that he was really attempting to fuck with me personally, with the hopes that it would get me out of his hair professionally, at least for a while. I had been there longer than him, and although he had more years under his belt, I was certainly more popular. Maybe his reputation was catching up with him, and he was worried about me ousting him.

Five months ago, I wouldn't have entertained the notion, but now it was really on my mind, but I'd never been one to back down from a challenge. I didn't want to go back and work for someone who thought I was so easily manipulated, or who was so unprofessional. Because really, I'd acted like an ass in the past, but this took it to a whole other level. He made it personal, and no one fucked with my happiness. My world.

When I thought back on my week at home, we'd had a few good moments, but so much of the time had been spent exerting energy on other things, instead of making up for lost time between us. I mean, I knew we'd have the kids to contend with, that was nothing new, but Stella and having everyone invade on Thanksgiving had really been too much. If I could have done it differently, I would have flown in and we would have spent the week in the Hamptons, and made people come down and see us, if they wanted to. No one needed to see me when I was home for a week besides Sookie and the kids. I'd just seen Pam, and a dinner with Stella would have probably been fine. We went months without seeing each other besides her laundry drop-ins anyway.

But hindsight was twenty/twenty, and we'd made our mistakes, both of us. And we both wanted to fix them, which was kind of a liberating feeling. I tucked her hair behind her ear, and whispered, "Lover, it's almost three in New York."

She rolled over, a smile on her bare face. "We're not in New York. And it's only ten in Paris. And I was tired. I am tired."

"I know. You passed out as soon as your head hit the pillow last night, and topless, you awful tease." I winked at her.

She traced my chest with her finger, and looked up at me. "My bra was damp, and your sweater was too heavy." She cocked her head at me like she'd been thinking about something all night. "Why did she decide to help you? The grad student."

I nodded to Ce's artwork collage. "You have our daughter, the artist to thank for that. She decided I wasn't an asshole because I had her pictures up, because I'd done nothing to convince her why otherwise." I'd really been a dick to Indira at the beginning, really just because I was bitter about being here. I was lucky she was a better person that I was.

"She is a Picasso in the making." Sookie sat up a bit, pulling the blanket around her. "I can't believe it's just you and me."

I chuckled. "I know. I wish it was under nicer circumstances. You look very Parisian like that, with the light and your breasts, and the apartment."

"Like I'm your lover in some elicit affair?" She grinned.

I traced my finger along the underside of her breast. "If that's the game you want to play, I'm in."

She shook her head. "I don't want to play any games. I think we're all played out."

I nodded. "Then you'll just be my regular lover."

She grinned, dropping the sheet and straddling my lap. "I'll just go with your lover. Regular implies that I'm rather mediocre."

"Neither of us are mediocre at anything," I whispered, stretching my legs out in front of me. "Least of all together."

We fucked, and then stayed in bed until around one, when I had to go lecture. I couldn't contain my grin when Sookie asked if she could come and watch. She'd never sat in on a lecture since the first day we met. The timing was never good, with the kids, or work. After critically examining the size of the shower, we showered separately, each of us taking the time to check into life via email while the other got cleaned up.

When I got out of the shower, I sat beside her, and looked over the screen into Max and Ceci's smiling faces in their pyjamas. Sookie grinned and patted the couch. "Oh, Dad's here now."

I sat beside her and looked into their smiling faces. "Having fun with Aunt Pam?"

They nodded vigourously. "Dad, Alcide got Duckhunt for his old Super Nintendo," Max exclaimed. Alcide had every gaming system ever sold on the North American market. It was kind of ridiculous, and quite unexpected, until you got to know Alcide a bit. He was really a big kid. A giant, overgrown child. "We're going to play when the babies go to bed."

Ceci punched him, and I saw him wince slightly. "I'm not a baby. Gaby is a baby."

Max rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

Ceci narrowed her eyes at the camera. "Where'd you guys go?"

Sookie grinned. "We're in Paris. I'll be home on Sunday, and then Dad a couple of weeks after."

Pam shouted from the background. "They're having adult time, and kissing a lot. You're not missing anything."

They both looked at each other, and wrinkled up their noses. "I hate Paris!" Ceci shouted. "Bye."

Max shook his head. "I'm gonna go play Duckhunt. Love you." And then he was gone.

We smiled at each other, before Pam came on the screen. "Seriously, your kids are hilarious. Ceci just sat beside me while I read a magazine and picked out things I should be wearing. She's not bad. I may take her to Fashion Week this year. Go have fun. They're fine here. I'll just replace anything white that they ruin. Also, you don't have to pay Claudine for this week. I don't want her darkening my doorstep with her cheerfulness. We don't need that shit here."

Sookie glanced at me. "Fine, but I hope you didn't upset her. We still need her when I get back."

Pam snorted. "She's fine. Alcide was very nice."

We said our goodbyes, and got dressed, Sookie in an oversized sweater, jeans, and a pair of boots, and me in my usual professor garb of jeans and a button down. We walked together, her arm linked in mine, as she did quick little steps to keep up with my strides. She stopped and looked up at the ancient buildings with a little smile on her face. "This is fantastic."

I shrugged. "It should have been."

"I'm glad I got to see where you were," she whispered.

My office was empty when we first sat down, but after a few minutes, Victor poked his head in, raising his eyebrows at Sookie spinning in my task chair. "Who's this now?"

Sookie raised an eyebrow in a very Northman-like way. "Boy, you just cut to the chase, don't you." She stood up, and reached for his hand. "Eric's wife. Susannah. And you are?"

Victor looked at her curiously, before shaking her hand. "Victor Madden. Lovely to meet you. In town for a visit?"

She nodded, a gleam in her eye. "Had to check in on this guy. Make sure he was behaving himself."

"Well he's quite popular here with the students." Victor grinned. "Especially the female students, of course."

I shot Victor a look, but Sookie gave him nothing, keeping her best poker face on. "Well that's nothing new. We've been dealing with that for years."

He chuckled awkwardly, not expecting that response. "I'm sure you have."

And then she did something surprising, and ballsy as hell. She leaned in close to him, and spoke, her voice cold as ice. "I trust my husband implicitly, Professor Madden. It's never been a problem in the past, and past behavior is a fairly accurate predictor of future behavior. You'd do well to remember that."

He looked at her for a second, unblinking. I grinned to myself, forgetting that she ate professors for breakfast now. "Well I hope you enjoy your visit. We'll be sorry to see Eric go, but I see you'll be pleased to have him back."

Her grin returned. "Absolutely. Our children have missed him terribly."

"I'm sure," he replied, as he walked out of the office.

I laughed, as she lifted her hand for a hi-five. "You're kind of my hero."

"I'm sure you've been a dick to him too." Her eyes sparkled at me. "What a creep. I thought you were exaggerating on your I hate everyone in Paris thing."

"Oh, he doesn't hate everyone," a female voice said from behind us. Sookie whipped around to find herself inches away from Dawn.

"Sookie, Dawn, Dawn, Sookie." I groaned. I should have known we'd run into everyone at once.

Sookie looked at her curiously. "Hello. You're not what I expected."

Dawn raised her eyebrows, an amused smirk on her face. "What did you expect?"

She shrugged, a small grin on her face. "I don't know. I couldn't quite picture you from what Eric said."

She looked at me, and then roared. "Did you tell her I was hideous, to make yourself sound better?"

I shook my head. "No, no. I did tell her that we were terrible at the sex, but that was it, really."

She looked at Sookie. "I think Sookie, you and I would have more chemistry than me and your husband here did."

She snorted. "He didn't say you were so charming. Or from Texas. Maybe you're right."

I rolled my eyes. "Alright, well, I have a lecture to give, so if you two want to get a room, go to it. Sookie, I'm done in an hour and a half."

Sookie pulled me up out of my chair. "Let's have dinner while I'm here, Dawn. I'm dying to hear about Eric's PhD days."

Dawn looked at Sookie and then back at me. "I didn't even know you were coming. Eric, why didn't you tell me she was coming?"

"I didn't know she was coming. She kind of surprised me."

Dawn nodded. "Smooth. To help with the problem, perhaps?"

I'd explained a bit of it to Dawn, over dinner the night before I went back to the States. "Yea. Let's talk about that at dinner too."

She leaned in, a wicked smile on her face. "I want Victor gone. Let's take them both down."

**Sookie**

Sitting in the back of Eric's packed lecture hall reminded me what I'd seen in him the first day we'd crossed paths. Watching Eric talk about sex, was, well, hot, and knowing that I'd probably be having sex with him in a few hours amped it up even more.

There was something about watching all the student's listening to his lesson on pornography addiction, and the unrealistic expectations that it gave people about sex, especially young people, or people with

limited experience, that also made me remember why I'd been so keen on having him write the book. He was an incredibly engaging lecturer, articulate, confident, and so intelligent. I was pleased that I'd had an eye for that, so early on in my career.

It wasn't that I forgot what Eric did, but I hadn't thought about it much in a while.

"Forty-seven per cent of prostitutes express some discomfort at requests they receive which they believe stem from pornography. And that's it's for today." His eyes searched mine out, and he gave me a little smile. I waited about ten minutes while he cleared away the students gathered around, before I walked down.

"Good lecture, Professor Northman." I winked, hopping up onto his table while he gathered his things.

He grinned. "I was going to point you out, but I didn't want to ruin the mystique so close to the end of term. Gotta keep them guessing about what kind of woman could make me less of an asshole."

"What are we doing now?"

"Do you want me to lock the door, and we can have lecture hall sex? I've never had lecture hall sex."

I looked around, before sweeping a rather long line of dust off the table with my finger. "Uh, I'm going to pass, in favour of sexy Parisian apartment sex. After you feed me. And I want it to be something French. No le hamburger."

"French toast? French fries?" He winked. "I'm sure we can find something."

And find something we did, about three blocks from the apartment. An adorable bistro. We sat down at a table by the window. "Have you been here?"

He nodded, a huge smile on his face. "I've been doing interviews here from time to time. It's been the part of Paris that I've really enjoyed."

"Feeling the love?" I reached across the table, and he wrapped his hand in mine.

"Oui oui," he said, a playful tone in his voice. "I'd ask you to sleep with me, but that phrase is kind of overused."

"And you don't have to ask." I squeezed gently. "This is like a real deal adult vacation."

He chuckled. "An impromptu one, but yea, it is. I don't have to teach tomorrow, so we can do some sightseeing, if you want."

I shook my head. "I don't want. I just want to be here with you, and walk around, and drink wine, and talk, and have sex until we pass out. That's what I want."

Eric put his hand on my knee under the table. "I think we can do that. I'll give you the 'things I wished I could show you' tour. There's a great park by the apartment, and this coffee shop that makes the most amazing crepes, oh, and the store where I got your ring. Pam also dragged me to this vintage store when she was here that you'll love."

It all sounded great. We both got the special, the most amazing pork roast with local vegetables, and followed it up with the most amazing chocolate mousse I'd ever had, along with some wine that really blew my mind. "God, how have you not gained eight hundred pounds?" I moaned, leaning over to have a bite of his mousse once mine was gone.

"I've gained a bit. I do quite a bit of walking." He patted his stomach. "Brie is my weakness though. It was all I could do not to order the cheese plate as an appetizer."

It was funny. After a few hours of people watching and watching each other, I kind of got Eric's thing about Paris and the romance. It wasn't that we'd lost our romantic feelings for each other, far from it, but they'd been overwhelmed by other feelings, like simple happiness that we were still good partners, and joy at seeing him with the kids. Things like security and responsibility took precedence. That sort of fire I felt in the beginning had turned to embers, but being here without a care in the world was like someone had thrown another log on the fire. I'd really needed to just forget about things for a bit, and focus on him. He deserved a week out of four months. Hell, normally he got several hours a day.

I decided right then and there that I wasn't checking work email. Bones would feel bad enough about what happened to keep things going while I was gone. And I did trust his judgment on work related matters, even if he was a bit of a problem personally. I'd think about that later. Maybe on the flight back.

And even if it was just for a week, it was nice to be able to focus on Eric exclusively. "Let's go back to your place," I whispered, after we paid our bill. "We can walk around more tomorrow."

"I won't argue with that," he replied, somewhat playfully. "Cheese plate for the road?"

I shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

We got the cheese to go, and walked back to Eric's apartment in the crisp night air. I leaned into his shoulder, as he grabbed my hand. "Why wasn't Dawn like you expected?"

I thought about it. "I don't know. I just had a hard time picturing a woman that you had no chemistry with that didn't look like Pam. She's really quite beautiful."

"She's okay." He shrugged. "I think we're too similar personality-wise. I mean, if I wanted to have sex with myself, I'd masturbate, and it would be a hell of a lot less work."

I giggled. "You're ridiculous."

"Whatever. Someone has to be worth the effort. I guess neither of us thought the other one was." He leaned down and kissed my forehead. "Remember how much effort I put in with you in the beginning? You were like a full-time job."

"Well after Bill and how awful that ended up, you can see why I might have been a bit hesitant. But you swayed me, with your amazing sexabilities." I waggled my eyebrows. "And maybe some other stuff too. I don't remember. It was a long time ago."

"I liked that you said no and I had to convince you," He looked at me devilishly. "and that you were bossy. I like when you're bossy. Sometimes I used to slack on the book just so you'd get bossy with me."

I'd know that all along. I stood on my tiptoes and whispered in his ear. "Get your sweet ass up those stairs."

He looked at me for a second, frozen like a deer in the headlights, before practically pulling me up the stairs. I shoved him against the wall when we got to the top of the stairs. "Yea, I'm into this," he whispered, as I pushed my mouth against his. "Are you going to be bossy all night?

I kissed him again, fumbling for his key in his pocket. "Yes."

We almost tripped over the girl with the huge sad eyes sitting outside his apartment door. We parted and Eric knelt to help her up. He looked at her curiously. "What are you doing here?"

She wiped her eyes. "I got a letter. I'm getting kicked out of the program. They're claiming it's my grades, and that I've been missing deadlines, but that's not true."

Eric pursed his lips, thoughtful. "It's your word against theirs."

She wiped her nose on her sleeve. "It's my life. God, my life is such a mess."

Eric glanced at me, and then back at the girl, who I'd figured out was probably the grad student. "I'll fix this. Let me talk to Dawn."

She looked up, at him, surprised. "You'd do that?"

He nodded. "You kind of saved my ass Indria, even if I didn't do anything wrong. This is my wife, by the way. Sookie."

I gave a little wave. "Hi."

She smiled at me. "You're really pretty, and your daughter looks just like you."

It was odd, being so friendly with a woman that two weeks ago had tried to entrap my husband. But she'd really made up for it. Even if it was in a twisted way. "Thanks. And thanks for not selling Eric out. I know it probably would have made things easier for you."

She shrugged. "Yea, it would have, but I've already made so many mistakes, sleeping with a married man, all of that. I thought this would fix things, but it wouldn't. It would just make them worse, because it's already hard enough living with the things I've done. I didn't need to add breaking up a marriage that was otherwise fine to the list."

I smiled up at Eric. "Well, we appreciate it, more than you know. I know he's an asshole, but he's a really good husband and dad."

"And I don't know what I would have done if I lost that," Eric said, moving his hand to my lower back. "I'll help you out. Go get some sleep. You look exhausted."

She nodded. "Okay."

He patted her back. "I'll call you tomorrow."

She smiled weakly, walking down the hall, as Eric pulled his keys out and opened the apartment. "Remember when not even Bill could kill the mood?"

I sighed. "Yea."

He held up the little box from the bistro. "At least we have the cheese."

I was in Paris. I was not trading cheese for sex. Maybe we could have cheese after sex, but it was not a substitute. "Take off your pants and get on the bed."

He looked at me for a minute, his eyes smiling, before complying. "Alright," he said, with a chuckle, before dropping trou, pulling his shirt over his head and laying down on the bed, socks and all.

"You're so silly." I grinned, before pulling the sleep mask I'd been given on the plane out of my purse. "Take your socks off at least."

He gave me an impressed look. "Are you going to blindfold me?"

"Did I say you could ask questions?" I raised an eyebrow.

"So bossy," He smirked, tossing his socks aside, before sprawling out on the bed. I stripped down to my bra and underwear and straddled his lap, moving around as much as possible as I pulled the sleep mask over his eyes.

I laughed, at him sprawled out on the bed in a tiny silky sleep mask and his boxers. "You look ridiculous."

"Too ridiculous to blow?" he grinned, his mouth turned up in a perma smile.

I sat on his lap, grinning back, even though he couldn't see it. "Who says I'm blowing you?"

He shrugged. "Wishful thinking?"

After making him guess for a half hour or so what I was wrapping around his cock, I pulled the mask off and pushed him against the headboard.

"I can't believe you can't tell the difference between my boobs and my mouth most of the time," I whispered, before lowering myself onto him.

"Me neither. We'll have to practice that more often, Lover." He wrapped his hands in my hair, pulling my mouth to his.

The cheese afterward was the icing on the cake. We sat in bed, eating it with crackers until we ran out of crackers, and then we just used our fingers.

"Best vacation ever," I giggled, as he put a piece of Roquefort in my mouth.

"Cheesecation?" He said, eating a huge chunk of brie. "Who knew sex and cheese went so well together?"

"It's not rocket science," I giggled, picking a crumb off his chest. "We're disgusting."

"In the best possible way." He broke off a piece of Munster, and popped it in his mouth. "So this Appius problem. What do you think?"

I looked up, thinking. "We need to find his weakness, and pick away at that."

"His weakness is grad students. Pretty male grad students."

I nodded. "So how do we turn that into a career killer?"

"A sexual harassment charge will kill a career pretty quickly. But he's got a good eye for people who are buying what he's selling. Research misconduct. Selling drugs, having a bigoted public viewpoint, that kind of thing."

The research thing seemed the most likely. "What's he research?"

"Cognitive behavioural theory. That sort of thing."

I snorted. "Go figure. So we need to start there, maybe? Do you know of any projects he's working on?"

Eric's eyes lit up. "No, but he suffers from anxiety. Do you think we can use that?"

Probably. "Is that kind of cruel?"

He looked at me, deadpan. "Oh yea, because he deserves consideration on that front, after all he's tried to do here."

I shrugged. "Fair enough."

Eric finished off the brie. "So we need to give him a nervous breakdown, then. That shouldn't be too hard."

"Or it'll be really hard. How the hell do you give someone a nervous breakdown?"

Eric had never sounded colder. "You pull the carefully placed pieces of their lives apart." He kissed my forehead.

And in that moment, I actually felt bad for Appius Ocella.

I had the feeling that wouldn't last long though, and I was right.


	16. Love and Some Verses

**So, um, yea. This chapter is a little silly, but, well, it's Valentines weekend, so I was feeling a bit smushy and sentimental. I hope you like. Thanks for all the love on this story so far! I hadn't realized how much I missed writing these two!**

**And if you're not reading White Blank Page, I hope you'll consider it! I've gotten some fantastic feedback so far, and I'd be very interested to know what you think of my step outside my comfort zone!**

**Also, I'd like to pimp Ethehunter's Genius and the Muse. It's a simply amazing story that everyone should check out!**

**I also started a playlist for this fic, which, well turned into an Iron and Wine Tribute somehow. There's some other stuff on there too. Check it out! **

playlist(DOT)com(SLASH)playlist(SLASH)21434673419

* * *

**Sookie**

We made plans to meet Dawn at Le Florimond the next night, after a day spent walking back streets and popping into stores. I shopped a bit, but it was mostly fun just being together, losing track of time while we talked about nothing and made each other smile.

My face hurt from smiling so much.

Around lunchtime, we'd just sat down at this adorable cafe with the prettiest cakes when Eric raised an eyebrow at me and pulled out his tape recorder.

I wrinkled up my nose at him. "What's that for?"

"I think we deserve a chapter. If not, a least a prominent part in the introduction." He clicked it on. "We can both ask questions. You've read my interview transcripts."

I wrapped my legs around his under the table. "So we just talk about how we met?"

"And how we fell in love." He waggled his eyebrows. "That is of the utmost importance."

I leaned back in my chair, sipping my cafe au lait. "Well, as you know, because you were there, it was not love at first sight."

"But it was lust, for me anyway. I'd noticed you and Amelia at the top of the lecture hall when I was teaching. I actually lied about my office hours so I could go have coffee with you two, even though I disliked Amelia. Sorry, Amelia, if you're reading this. I guess you already knew how I felt though. You are a sales rep."

I grinned. "I didn't know you blew off office hours for coffee."

"I think I liked your glasses. They were chic, yet sexy, and somehow unassuming. I don't know how glasses could be all those things, but they were. I had to know more."

"And when you had me take you out for dinner? I was so nervous, because I thought you were just going to take me like you took Maudette, and I was going to have to sit there with you after you rejected my book idea. And you were so intimidatingly handsome. I was terrified of trying to make small talk with you."

"Because I was a cocky asshole?"

"Because you were you, and it was such a big project, and you'd made such a point of saying that you always said no. I had no idea how I was going to convince you otherwise. That was before I was a master of author manipulation."

He nodded, a smirk on his face. "You have gotten three editions out of me. You're pretty good."

I smiled. "You were so aggressive at first, with your questioning

"I wanted to drink you up, to know everything about you. I wasn't sure why you made me feel the way you did, and I had to know. Incidentally, I still haven't figured it out, but I decided a long time ago that it wasn't the kind of thing that there was an answer to."

"We kind of just worked, in a scratchy way. I always thought we were kind of like velcro. We sort of both just dug our heels into one another. And then there was Bill."

"Bill acknowledged at Thanksgiving that he was never a threat. He sure made things complicated though."

I nodded. "That's true. I never would have taken him back. That was a pretty major thing to leave out."

"I've never been more insecure about anything than I was about you and him in the beginning. It felt like whatever we had, which quickly became incredibly important to me was shaky, because you were still an item on paper. Every day you came over, and told me you loved me, it made it a little better, but I was still afraid for a long time that I'd wake up one morning, and you would have changed your mind, and chose your history over our present."

"I think the baby changed everything for me."

He nodded. "That changed a lot."

It still was hard to think about, eight years and two wonderful kids later. "I think when that happened, it was when I really understood our potential, and how strong we'd magically become over eight months. I didn't even notice it happening, but it had. We just kind of got each other. You knew when I didn't want to talk, and what to say, and how to love me when everything else had flaked away. When there was no sex, and no fun times. You were like my rock. And you still are, when everything threatens to sweep me away. I know I can hold onto you, and I'll be fine."

He reached across the table and pulled me to the middle, kissing me, both hands on my cheeks. "And I'll always be there, no matter what you need me for."

Only Eric could make such a sweet statement sound like something very sexy. I blushed, glancing at the barista, who was grinning at us. "I'm sure that broke all sorts of ethics rules."

"Good thing this isn't for a scholarly work then." He kissed me again, before backing away slowly, a huge smile on his face. "It always felt like we were building something, every time we marked some small milestone, like when we kissed for the first time, or when you finally stayed over and slept in my bed. I watched you for ages that morning, before you woke up. It felt like a real accomplishment."

I snorted. "Just getting you to be my boyfriend felt like an accomplishment, after that spiel you gave me about how you didn't date."

"And remember when I met your gran for the first time, and she thought we'd had an affair?"

"Why does everything think that?"

"Because I'm the kind of guy you leave your husband for."

"But you weren't."

He raised his eyebrows. "I fit the profile though."

I reached across the table ands squeezed his hand. "You don't fit any profiles."

He shut the recorder off. "There. Perfect."

I stuck my tongue out at him. "That's because we ended on a compliment for you."

"It is my book." He patted my hand. "Besides, if you're editing it, you can end it where ever you like."

I smirked at him. "I'm editing it."

"I don't trust anyone else with my words. Or the words I've carefully tape recorded. Whatever." He stuffed the recorder back in his pocket. "I guess we should get going and meet Dawn. I'll warn you Lover, she's very blunt. Perhaps even more than I am. Especially when it comes to sex."

"I didn't think was possible."

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh, it's possible. It's too bad her husband can't make it. He blushes like a schoolboy when she talks about them fucking, which she will talk about."

"We're not going to compare notes, are we?"

He shook his head. "No matter how hard she tries."

Dawn was already at the restaurant when we arrived, sitting in a corner with a paperback. She saw us, waving furiously as we walked over. "I thought y'all weren't going to be able to pull yourselves out of bed long enough to come for dinner."

Eric checked his watch. "We're only five minutes late."

She shrugged. "My mind never strays far from sex. I just assumed that's where you were."

A bottle of wine and some amazing appetizers later, I realized that Eric was right on the money with Dawn. It was kind of like listening to a train wreck. Impossible to stop.

"So we're having sex on mostly deserted beach, when we got attacked by a seagull. Who ever heard of such a thing happening?" She giggled.

Eric glanced at me, and I decided to go for a subject change. "So tell me about Eric at UCLA."

She glanced at him. "Do you really want me to do that?"

Eric shrugged. "Sookie knows, well, enough. What's a little more?"

So I sat there, blinking, as Dawn described their adventures, including their failed one in the bedroom.

"...so I thought he might have been gay, or into anal, or something." She snorted. "I had no idea what was going on. I'm really good at sex."

Eric raised an eyebrow at me, and it was not missed by Dawn.

She gasped. "You are into anal."

He shook his head. "I'm not into anal."

That wasn't true, entirely. It was a half truth. But not one I was interested in discussing over escargot, with a woman that had once had bad sex with my husband.

She rolled her eyes. "It's fine if you're into anal. I think like forty per cent of men have had it, and who wouldn't like it? It's another thing to do, and it feels amazing. There's a lot of nerve endings. It's taboo. Hoyt loves it."

Yep, I was absolutely blushing. "I love this escargot. It's so fresh." I grinned, hoping desperately to change the subject.

"You're into it, and he's not? Is that it? You've piqued my curiosity now." Her eyes twinkled. "Come on Sookie. Spill."

I shook my head. "Nope. I'm good at dodging sexpert questioning. I'm trying to change the subject."

Eric listened with amusement. "Sookie's very private when it comes to our sex life. Drop it."

But she didn't. "We're all friends here. Wait..." She looked up, thinking. "I remember now. You're large. I was so excited to find that out, and then you had no idea what to do with it. Yea, I remember wondering if I should suggest anal, and chickening out." She shrugged. "I guess we were just bad together."

I exhaled, happy that we were ending the conversation there. The night we'd attempted that was not one we spoke of, on punishment of death. "So Indira came by Eric's place last night."

Dawn tried to think about who she was, until Eric finally told her. "The grad student. You know, that was supposed to work with you, but who Victor gave to me. The one who tried to seduce me. Well, it was a rather weak attempt. The one who had the abortion."

Dawn finally nodded in recognition, furrowing her brow. "Right right. The problem causer. I didn't even give her a name in my head. She came by? I thought you sorted all that out with a lawyer."

Eric nodded. "We did, but Victor is trying to kick her out of school because she didn't help him. I don't want that to happen."

**Eric**

She leaned across the table. "So we need Vic gone."

Vic. He'd told me to call me Vic when I'd first arrived. I'd opted not to. "First off, then I need to oust my department head in New York. Any interest in doing a semester abroad and giving me a hand?"

She shook her head. "I only get to see my husband on weekends as it is, and I despise New York. No thanks. But I'd help from here if you needed me."

"Well, I'd like whatever we do here to make Appius nervous about me coming back, so it has to be intense."

Dawn leaned back in her chair. "I think we should harness the power of the internet. He's already creepy. I'm sure if we started a Victor Madden is creepy post on the overheard on campus website, we'd probably get some good stuff. It doesn't have to be a complicated scheme, and it doesn't have to lead back to us."

That wasn't a bad idea. "I could have Indira post something to get us started. What he did was pretty creepy with her. In fact, that alone could bring him down, if brought to the attention of the right people."

She nodded, a small smile on her face. "Well let's bring it to their attention that way, and see what else we can get too."

"And I think for saving her ass in school, Indria would own up to being the one who posted the initial post. Let's shame him first though. That will ensure he won't be able to get out of it." This was easier than I thought it was going to be. I had the feeling Appius would be more of a challenge, but Victor was a good start.

And so the three of us went back to Dawn's place, and watched online as Indira posted her item. As expected, she agreed wholeheartedly to do whatever we needed if Dawn would help her stay in school. We all grinned as we read what she'd written.

_This psychology professor is a creep, straight up, with his rat-like appearance and touchy feely behavior. Earlier this fall though, he took it to a whole new level, paying for a student to have an abortion under the conditions that she pin the pregnancy on a visiting professor in the department, in order to destroy his reputation and create problems in his personal life. _

Sookie giggled. "I feel like we're on Gossip Girl."

I patted her back. "This was easier than I thought. This looks terrible on the school."

Dawn nodded. "Give it a few days, let it build to a fever pitch and I'll go to the dean. We all win."

We chatted with Dawn a bit more and had a couple of glasses of wine before getting a taxi back to my apartment. Once again, we barely made it in the door, this time being interrupted by this ancient old woman who lived down the hall from me, who just tisked at us.

Sookie squealed as I pinned her against the wall. "I love when you're plotting. It's so fucking hot," she whispered, unbuttoning my shirt.

I growled, as she ran her tongue over my nipple. "I'm going to fuck you against this wall, Lover,"I whispered, growing hard as she shivered in anticipation. I went for the button on her jeans, pushing them down to her ankles, before pulling her sweater off, picked her up, and pressed her back against the wall, pushed my shorts down as she wrapped her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist. She tossed her head back as I entered her and let out the most delicious moan, crossing her ankles behind my back, which pulled us even closer together.

I loved fucking her here, in this apartment which had been without her presence for so long. I'd had an impossible time imagining her here, her smell, her smile, her underwear on the floor, her hair in my face when I woke up in the morning, the way she spit in the sink when she brushed her teeth.

And we only had two weeks apart once she went home before we could return to our perfect life.

I knew perfection was always a myth, but it was perfect for us.

I pulled out eventually, eager to make the moment last as long as possible, in this somewhat ideal situation, where there was no fear of interruption, and nothing was in danger of getting off schedule. There was nothing else ticking away at the back of our minds, as was so often the case. This was a time for her and I to plaster over seven years of cracks, so small we hadn't even seen them, and start over with a new coat of paint.

I dropped to my knees and she balanced against the wall, her hands up over her head for balance, as I pulled one leg over my shoulder, leaving her on her tiptoes on the other one.

"You're too damn tall," She giggled, before stabilizing herself against the wall.

"You're too short," I mumbled, before silencing her in a way I knew wouldn't get me smacked later. Her snarkiness was replaced by her moaning my name, one of her hands in my hair, as I moved a hand to her breast.

Sookie was great for my ego, not that my past experiences hadn't been, but I really liked getting her off, because she was her. I liked the way her brow twitched, the way her lips curled up into an almost automatic smile before she squeezed her eyes shut and just came. She always fought it for a bit, savouring the moment much like I did.

On quivering limbs, she crawled off my shoulders and grinned at me. "Against the wall, Northman."

We switched positions, but my height was a bit of an issue. Never one to be put off my a challenge, she shoved me down on the couch, and I ran my hands through her hair as she sunk to her knees again. It was really great, to be thinking about nothing besides how good it felt when she fondled my balls, the way her mouth felt around my shaft, when moved her tongue gently around the tip. I felt myself grow close, and it was apparent that she noticed as she crawled onto my lap.

"I want you to finish inside me," she whispered, her straightforward honesty making me even harder. I grunted something along the lines of 'I love you,' which probably didn't sound like much, but meant a hell of a lot, as we pressed our bodies against one another's, so close that it was indistinguishable where I ended and she began.

We finished fairly close together, our mouths pressed together, tasting each other gasps and moans, among other things, as we squeezed together even closer, tensing, before eventually relaxing.

Eventually, we pried apart from each other and crawled into bed, still grinning at each other as we had for most of the day. She wrapped her body around me, draping a leg over mine, as I turned the laptop on. We'd subscribed to Indira's thread, and we both blinked at the screen at the number of notifications we'd gotten.

Sookie looked at me curiously. "Fifty notifications? How long were we fucking for?"

I looked at the clock on the computer. "A couple of hours maybe? I'm not sure when we got home."

We sat up and read through them, some of the comments amusing, and some heartbreaking. Victor was a real asshole, and the way he'd manipulated other students was appalling.

"I guess that was effective," I sighed, closing the laptop screen and setting it on the side table.

"What a douche," Sookie whispered. "And who knew that would be so easy."

It had been really easy, and when I got an email on my Iphone from Dawn about a faculty meeting the next afternoon I couldn't help but grin. "I guess it's rare that people are only assholes with select people. This is really going to shake things up here."

Sookie nodded. "Good thing you're leaving."

I shrugged. "It was a good trial run. A lesson in self destruction, if you will."

She grinned. "Now we just need to Americanize it."

I chuckled at her enthusiasm. "Throw some stars and stripes on it? Make it more puritanical? Turn it into a hunt for WMDs?"

I roared, as she hit me with her pillow. "Hey, come on now. We live in a blue state. And I did marry a European."

When I finally got ahold of myself, I tossed her pillow on the floor. "You're right, Lover. You did. We'll just supersize it. That's how we'll make it American."

Oddly enough, that sounds like just the ticket.


	17. Don't Stand So Close to Me

**So, finally, here we have it. Let me know what you think, and if you're not reading my new fic, White Blank Page, I hope you'll check it out! It's a bit outside my comfort zone, but people seem to be enjoying it!**

**Thanks for all the love, and please keep it coming!**

* * *

**Sookie**

Before we knew it, the week was up, and it was seven in the morning on Saturday, and I was nursing a coffee, unwilling to pull myself off Eric's knee until absolutely necessary.

We'd really enjoyed the rest of our week, the highlight of which was certainly watching Victor's very quick fall from grace. He was put on leave two days after Indira posted the blind item, and Dawn was given the position of Chair the day after that.

We we were pleased, but we knew it wasn't the end of things back in the States. If anything, it would probably piss Appius off more.

I was sad leaving, but I really missed the kids. A week was a long time to be apart from them, and it made me feel for Eric on that front, being away so much longer.

"I'll see you in two week Sook," he whispered, as I started getting weepy. "We've done two weeks before."

I'd gone to Louisiana to help Jason out with baby number two, his first with Amy, and taken Ceci with me, when she was two. Amy had dealt with postpartum depression, and he'd really needed me. Max and Eric had eaten mac and cheese and pizza for a week, and after cuddling their baby, Carrie, I'd almost decided I wanted another baby.

Almost.

"I know," I whispered, wiping my eyes. "This has been so nice."

"An improvement over your last trip?" he smirked.

"Now, if I tell you that, you'll rub it in and make Bill feel bad." I winked, checking my watch. I really needed to get to my gate. "But yea, it was pretty amazing."

We stood up and he wrapped an arm around my shoulder, pulling me into an embrace."I emailed you our interview. I won't judge you if you read it over sometimes. I probably will."

"You're such a sap," I whispered, started to cry all over again. "I'll call you when I land."

He nodded. "You're picking up the kids tomorrow right? I'll call them tonight at Pam's."

"I want to get them, but it'll be really late when I get back, and you know how they are. They'll be a wreck tomorrow."

"You get some sleep too. We had a busy week," he chuckled. "In all the right ways."

I stood on my tiptoes, kissing him one more time. "Bring me back some croissants? From the place by your apartment?"

"Sure. Let me know if you want anything else. I guess I should do my Christmas shopping."

"You don't have to get me anything. Unless you can find some sort of sexy Santa suit for you, that's tasteful." I giggled. "Wow, that's a bit of a tall order."

He waggled his eyebrows."Red briefs? Perhaps some mistletoe? I'll figure something out. I'll grab Stel something Pam approved here. We're just ordering the kids' stuff online again? "

I nodded vigourously. "Oh, hell yes." That was the best decision we'd ever made last year. "I'll take care of it on Monday at lunch."

"Perfect. And I'll send you a shopping list for our Fuckaversary right before I get home. There's some things you'll need to pick up." He smiled mischievously. "Or we can go when I get back, but it'll be really busy."

I was dying to know what he had planned. Maybe I could figure it out if I had a list of things to pick up. "I'll get the stuff."

"Okay." He wrapped his arms around me again. "I hate dragging out goodbyes. See you in two weeks."

Once I was out of Eric's orbit, and after I let myself get weepy for a few minutes, my mind travelled back to Bones, and how the hell I was going to deal with that situation. I had to make him understand, without making him feel stupid, or damaging our working relationship too much.

I was willing to absorb a bit of the blame. I had liked the attention I'd gotten from him, the flirtatious comments, the company, but that was because those were things I wasn't getting from my husband, since he was on the other side of the world. Had he been here, I was fairly certain that our relationship would have developed quite differently.

It had also been a really hard time, with Sam being let go, and me being promoted into a position that I was insecure about. And then Eric and I had really not reconnected like I imagined we would when he was home for Thanksgiving, and it had all sort of fallen to shit after that.

That, and that God-awful, totally erotic dream I'd had. That had made things awkward too.

But I'd fixed my relationship with Bill, and next to that, this was small potatoes. A kiss and a vasectomy weren't even in the same ballpark. I could find a way to make this work again. I was good at relationships, of all sorts.

Except maybe my relationship with Sam. That had DNR slapped all over it.

I staggered into the house at around midnight, calling Eric quickly enough to mumble some pleasantries and fall into bed.

I woke up around ten, to Ce and Max crawling all over me, and Pam leaning in my doorway. "I tried to contain them, but they're like mini you and Erics."

"Wonderful and sweet?" I grinned, burying my face in Ceci's hair.

She looked at me deadpan. "Stubborn and determined. They knew you were going to be here and there was nothing I could do."

I squeezed the hell out of them, before happily taking the Starbucks Pam had been kind enough to bring me. "Pam, I can't thank you enough for this week."

She chuckled. "Oh, Sookie, there will be a time when I will most certainly ask you to return the favour. I'm going to take off though. Leave you folks to your lay in. Alcide's watching Gab, and there's shopping to be done."

I waved her off, and told the kids about my trip, well the appropriate parts anyway. So, I ended up telling them that we ate a lot and then I fished them out the little things I'd picked out for them, a few little cast iron figures for Max, one of the Eiffel Tower, and one of the Arc, as well as a tiny Napoleon, and a very fancy sticker book for Ce. Max was really into little things like that now. Everywhere we went, he wanted a little something like that, and I remembered having a sticker book when I was a kid, and that being pretty exciting.

They ran off, Lil hot on their heels to see all the toys they'd forgotten they owned at their week at Aunt Pam's and I took a minute to go through the mail. A few bills, a couple of irritatingly early Christmas cards, and an unmarked manilla envelope made up the pile in front of the door.

I sat down at the kitchen table, and began opening everything, shredding the bills since they came out of our bank accounts automatically. Finally, I tore open the manilla envelope and I felt my gut lurch.

Pictures of Eric, with Indira at a cafe, in Paris. Eric with a very drawn, disturbed look on his face. Indira leaving his apartment. If I hadn't known all of these things happened, and the backstory behind them, I would have been destroyed.

But I wasn't in that marriage, and I'd met Indira, and I was capable of being rational, after taking a few deep breaths, anyway. Well, about the images. The fact that Appius had left them was a whole other story. I stuck the pictures on top of the fridge, away from little hands, and opened up my laptop. After a few minutes of searching, I found exactly what I was looking for.

A couple of tastefully pornographic pictures of my husband and me, taken with a timer during a particularly erotic adults only weekend in the Hamptons to be shared on penalty of death, and a picture Eric had taken of us at a cafe in Paris and emailed me from his Iphone. The erotic pictures weren't clear enough to really tell who they were, but I figured the nice Paris head shot would clear that up, if there was any question.

The message wasn't obvious, as first, but I knew when Appius thought about it, he'd figure it out. We were together. And we weren't a typical couple. He wasn't giving us enough credit.

I ducked into Eric's office upstairs and printed the three of them, pulling out a similar manilla envelope and stuffing them inside with a note that simply said, "Thanks. Here's a few for you."

I looked good in those pictures. And he'd tried and was continuing to try and ruin my marriage. I'd created the punishment of death rule, and for this, I decided, I'd break it.

I bundled the kids up, and we hiked to NYU, and slid them under Appius' door. We stopped at Tara's quickly on the way home, and her and I had a coffee while the kids played. Her little girl was a bit younger than Ce, but they all got along alright. Ce liked being the oldest.

"So, Paris?" Tara wiggled her eyebrows. "Good times?"

I smiled. "Oh, you know. Of course. It'll be nice to have him back."

"I'd kill to get rid of Benny for four months. You're lucky." She glanced at a pile of his work on the kitchen table. "Although then I'd have to be a single parent."

"Yea, I'll be glad to be able to shower for more than five minutes again on a regular basis."

She smiled, like the cat that swallowed the canary. "So I have news."

I raised an eyebrow, for the first time noticing that she was drink tea. Herbal tea. "Oh?"

"I'm a little pregnant. Just a little."

I gave her a huge hug. And realized that I was really and truly not the tiniest bit jealous. Maybe for the first time that I'd heard someone was having a baby in ten years. "That's so exciting!"

"We've been trying for two years now, so it's very exciting. We aren't telling a lot of people yet, but yea. We're due at the end of June."

"So you won't be pregnant all summer. Good timing. Oh, Tara." I hugged her again. I knew they'd had some trouble, but it was never anything she wanted to talk about. Some things were spousal issues, and some were friend issues. I figured that was a spousal one for them. Lord knows how much I'd bitched and cried and whined to Eric when it took us six months with Ceci.

It was a crisp afternoon, but nice enough to walk home, and by the time we made it back to the house, the kids were beat. I got them settled with dinner, and went in the living room to call Eric. I realized when I dialed that I probably should have told him that I was going to slip erotic pictures of us under his bosses' door.

Oops.

He practically purred when he answered the phone. "Hello, Lover. Thirteen days."

I smiled to myself at his voice, but opted to cut to the chase. "Mmmm. Thirteen days. So I may have done something brilliant, or stupid. I was kind of worked up, so it was a bit impulsive."

He was quiet for a minute. "What did you do?"

"You know those pictures we took of us at the Hamptons, maybe a year ago? You know, the ones where we're..."

"Fucking?"

"Yea."

"I do. In fact, I have them in a folder marked 'taxes' on my desktop."

I took a deep breath. "Well, I found an unmarked envelope this morning with some pictures of you, and Indira, and Indira leaving your apartment, and I may have printed a couple of those, along with the picture you emailed me yesterday, stuffed them in an envelope and stuck them under Appius' door."

"Which pictures?" he asked, curiously. "We took a lot."

"None of the really racy ones, and none where you could see our faces. I think the worst you can really see is some sideboob. I rationalized that since it's on the cover of your textbook. Not my sideboob, but sideboob."

"Hmmm. Can you see my cock in any of them?"

"I think your ass in one, but no, no cock."

"That's unfortunate. And I'm pissed that he would give you those pictures. Really pissed. I hope you kept them." I could hear the playfulness in his voice. "And that you picked a good one of my ass."

I grinned broadly."I did, on both counts. They're on top of the fridge."

"You're a crazy broad, Northman. But hey, if I'm going out at NYU, I'd rather it be with a bang. I'm sure those pictures will freak him out, and probably turn him on, but mostly freak him out. He has to know we're onto him, with the Victor situation. You've got brass balls. I can appreciate that."

I laughed. "Well it's a Sunday. It's not like he was going to be there. He's an administrator."

"If he's got any sense, he'll keep them to himself, because he knows we've got the ones from him. I'd expect something about the abortion too, if that's the game he's playing."

And then I thought of something. "Oh, Tara and Benny are expecting." I froze for a moment. "Wow, that was in poor taste, following what you said with that."

He snorted. "That's great for them, and you're just talking to me. I'm the opposite of politically correct. I think you should go to bed after the kids. The time change is a bitch. I'll call you at work tomorrow afternoon. Don't worry about talking again tonight."

I didn't feel so desperate to talk to him, since I'd just seen him, and he'd be back in less than two weeks. It was a good feeling. "I'll let you know how it goes with Bones too."

"I look forward to hearing about that. Sort of. Stick me on with the little ones, and I'll say goodnight. How are they?"

"Perfect, and wonderful. I missed them a lot. Ceci told me that she's never going to Paris because people kiss there, and Max liked his little figures."

I didn't have to see him to know he was smiling. "I can't wait to see them."

"Thirteen days."

I ran myself a bath while Eric talked to the kids, and as usual when I had a bath, the bathroom turned into a gathering place. Lil curled up on the bathmat, enjoying the steam.

"Can you read me a story, Mom? Aunt Pam doesn't read all the words," Ce grumbled, bringing me the classic _Run Spot Run_. Of course she knew all the words.

"Sure."

She plopped down on the floor next to the tub, and I read to her, word for word while she listened intently. "You're a good reader, Mom," she grinned, scrambling to her feet when I finished.

"Thanks, Ce. Can you go get your Pjs on, and tell Max to get his on too?"

She ran out, and I could hear her barking orders at Max, who would undoubtedly ignore her.

I got everyone to bed early, including myself, which made six-thirty a little bit easier. Claudine showed up at seven-thirty, and I dropped Max off on my way to work, making it in the door at a little after eight.

I thought about the best way to handle Bones, which ranged from ignoring anything had happened, to emailing him my Paris interview with Eric, and never speaking of it again. Neither solution seemed right though. It would have been easier to slip some tastefully erotic pictures under his door, but I didn't work in that kind of environment. I smiled to myself, at the ridiculousness of Eric's world sometimes. Academia was like high school with higher stakes. I couldn't believe that Appius had had the nerve to leave those photos in my mail slot. I was furious just thinking about it.

So I decided on a very upfront variation. At about ten, after I'd had my coffee and waded through the important emails from my week away, I sent him a meeting request. He arrived at my door about a half hour later, right on time.

He smiled uncomfortably in the doorway. "Hello Lu...Sookie."

"Crispin," I smiled, really hoping we'd be able to sort this out like adults. "Have a seat, please, and close the door."

He did as I asked, and when he'd taken his seat, I handed him the interview Eric and I had talked through. "I think this will be the introduction, or at least part of the introduction of the book Eric wants to do, the trade book. Let me know what you think, and I'm happy to answer any questions you might have."

He took the sheets, and I worked through some more emails while he read the couple of pages. When he sat them down, on my desk, I turned to face him. "I don't really know how to explain he and I, beyond that, except to say that I love him, and he's good to me, and I'm sorry if I gave you any idea other than that. He's not what people around here might think he is."

Bones chewed on that for a minute. "I think I certainly had a different idea."

I nodded. "I think you did too. Do I look like the kind of woman that would let someone walk all over her? You've seen me around here. He works hard for me. We work hard for each other, and we always have."

"Sam said that your relationship was parasitic."

I laughed. "Of course he did. He wasn't saying that when I was bringing in a book that helped him make his bonus in a terrible economy. Look, I know we got married when I was pregnant, but we'd been together for a year before that, I just kept work and my private life separate. For obvious reasons, since you've now experienced the gossip mill around here."

He furrowed his brow at me. "I shouldn't have kissed you."

"No, you shouldn't have, but I'm willing to accept that I was probably putting some mixed signals out there. It's been really hard, him being gone. We're not long distance people. And he didn't want to leave us, but it means he should be able to get ahead at NYU, which will be beneficial for us. Short term sacrifice, for long term gain."

Bones gave me a nod. "Alright then, where do we go from here now?"

I'd given this a lot of thought. "I'd like us to continue on like we were, but you've got to stop calling me Luv, and we need to tone the flirting down. Eric knows what happened, and you should probably stay away from him as well. He's a caveman when it comes to me."

"I did kiss the mother of his children. I suppose that's quite understandable then."

I smiled. "You're alright, Bones."

He stood up, a genuine smile on his face. "Thank you, Sookie. I'll see you for lunch, then? We'll catch up on the week around here?"

I nodded. "Sushi?"

He grinned. "Of course."

I closed the door behind him, and called Eric.

"So, I did it."

"Hello, Lover. Did what? More dirty pictures?" He chuckled.

I snorted. "No. I gave him our interview, and we talked about it, Northman style, all open and honest. I think we're good, Bones and I."

He made an approving, cavemanesque grunt. "Good. I still don't want him in my home."

"He understands that."

"Then we're fine. Twelve days."

"Twelve days. Now let's get that Christmas shopping done. I'm doing a catch up lunch with Bones."

Eric was quiet for a minute, but then he was okay. "I do trust you, you know. Implicitly."

I smiled to myself. "And I, you."


	18. Rocket Man

**So, here's the next chapter! I'm glad you're all enjoying this story, but I wanted to take a minute to address an anon review that one of you left on my other story, White Blank Page:**

"_I'm sad that this story is getting all your love and attention. I'm missing the Expat! LOL"_

**I'm not LOLing. As I've explained several times in my author notes, I've gotten a lot of that story written, and I write this one as I go. I also have a very full-time job, and sometimes when I get home from work, I don't feel like pumping out a chapter. I feel like talking to my husband, or staring blankly ahead and cleansing my brain after a stressful day. I missed a 16 car pileup by five minutes on a highway during a business trip on Thursday. I didn't exactly feel like writing good times. I'm not a writing machine. I'm a person, and this takes a lot of time, that I don't always feel like allocating to it. I don't insist on you leaving reviews, so I don't really understand why you think you can dictate what I write, and when I write it. **

**I also update this story multiple times a week, and you know what? Not a lot of other authors do that. I never promised daily updates of anything, and frankly, when you leave a review like that, it doesn't make me want to update anything. **

**Luckily though, you are only one person, and I'm thrilled that the rest of you are enjoying my stories, and my writing as a whole. It really means a lot to me that you take the time to read it, and I do enjoy the opportunity to interact with you as my audience. It's a real treat.**

**Sorry to rant, but as soon as this starts to feel like a job, I'm done. I already have a job that pays a hell of a lot more than this does, and I have deadlines and get shit from people there. I don't need it here.**

**Sea**

**

* * *

**

**Eric**

After a whirlwind last week in Paris, I packed up my things, shipping the stuff that wouldn't fit in my suitcase, and said au revoir to Europe, and hello to my old life. My flight was unfortunately delayed, so I got home around two in the morning on the twenty-fourth.

When the cab dropped me off in front of home, I couldn't control the grin on my face, and when I sat the little Post-it note stuck to the inside front door, suddenly my jetlag and the time difference didn't hit me as hard as they had initially.

_Wake me up when you get home. - S_

I hoped there was a double meeting to her note, and as soon as I stuffed the cheese I'd brought back with me in the fridge, I made my way to our room. I half thought about checking on the kids, but I didn't want to wake them up, not if I was going to be waking Sookie up. They'd be excited to see me in the morning.

My last two weeks in Paris had been pretty great. I'd finished up my courses, and watching Victor fall, scandalized was a beautiful thing. Dawn had been like some sort of warrior woman, bringing everyone together to squash him like a bug. Indira was able to stay in school too, and Dawn took her on as her advisor.

It all worked out. Now I just needed to figure out how to bring Appius down. I knew he'd be harder to bring down than Victor had been, but I felt like I'd enjoy it all the more. Victor had just been Appius' puppet. I wanted the ventriloquist, not the dummy.

After a quick bathroom stop, I quietly crept into our room, instantly relaxing, at the sight of familiar surroundings. I was home. We'd survived. It was dark, the curtains drawn, the only light from her alarm clock, which she insisted on using even though she used her Blackberry for everything else.

I undressed, smiling at Lily, who was wagging her tail at me, but otherwise made no effort to get out and greet me. She'd always been a lousy guard dog, but I guess it came with the territory of being under twenty pounds and kind of old, which she was.

Sookie was in bed, naked, curled up on her side, her smooth back and gorgeous ass facing me. She never slept naked. Which lead me to the conclusion that she was naked for me. I watched her for a minute, trying to think of the best way to wake her up.

I decided that the simplest way was probably the best, and I crawled in behind her, kissing her neck as she came to.

"Bones, is that you?" She giggled, as I growled at her. "Sorry, I couldn't resist."

I glared at her, before pulling her onto her back, and moving on top of her. "Look at you, here. You should sleep naked all the time."

She shrugged, a coy smile on her face. "You like? I thought I'd give you a little Paris in New York."

True, we had spent a lot of time naked in Paris. My eyes travelled her body, familiar but magnificent. "Always. You're not working tomorrow, are you?"

She shook her head. "It's Christmas Eve. We're going to the Hamptons in the afternoon, but otherwise we're free and clear. You're running Christmas next year though."

I nodded. "Fine. Whatever."

She smiled, wrapping her legs around my waist. "So we've got all night is what I'm getting at. And I don't care if we're tired tomorrow. We can swap up taking naps since I'm no longer a single parent."

"I love the way you think," I groaned, as she gently slid her hand along my stomach, before wrapping her fingers around my cock. "And my hands feel like shit compared to yours."

She pushed me back on my heels, and I hissed, as she used two hands on me, before reaching for her vibrator. After about three minutes of that on my balls, I pushed her hand away. "No, I want to fuck you."

"Stamina not up to snuff, Northman?" She raised an eyebrow. "I guess we'll have to practice a lot, since you're back now."

"I may be looking for a tutor. Are you up to the task?"

She bit her lip, before reaching into her drawer beside the bed and pulling out her glasses. "Oh, I think I am, Professor Northman."

Somewhere between cowgirl and the scissor position, it happened. I pulled something. I made a noise that sounded something like 'guh', which didn't get Sookie's attention. However, losing my hard on did get a reaction out of her.

"What the fuck, Eric?" She glared at me, as I pulled my hand off her breasts. "Don't stop."

"I hurt myself," I gasped out. "I think I pulled my hamstring." It hurt like hell. Like I'd ripped my leg open.

She moved off me, as I hissed in pain. "Shit, really? I was so close."

"Can't help you there," I groaned. "Holy shit."

She sat up, eying me curiously. "You're really in pain."

My body was confused by the arousal and pain combination."Can you google what we're supposed to do here?"

She walked across the room and grabbed her computer, and I mourned the fantastic orgasms we'd missed out on. God, it was good to be home, even if I was in pain.

"It says to ice it. Do you want me to get you some ice?" She reached for my shirt on the floor.

"I want you to make me come, but I guess I want that more, now." I sighed.

She grinned. "Lots of nights for that."

She came back a minute later, and sat crosslegged beside me, as I iced my injury. "I've been having sex for what, nearly thirty years, and this is the first time I've really hurt myself." Sex related injuries were more common that one would think though. I remember reading a study on it. Most people lied about the cause of their injuries, so it was really hard to get accurate statistics.

Sookie looked at me and grinned. "I may have given myself carpal tunnel getting off without you for the past few months."

"I used to jerk off so much when I was a kid that I had to quit playing sports. I developed all the wrong muscles. Well that, and I was never much of a team player." I chuckled, wincing. "I guess at least we were fucking, if it had to be something. I don't know how we'll do in Mexico with this though."

Her eyes lit up. "Mexico? For our fuckaversary?" She shook her head. "I have to say I'm relived, because I couldn't think of many places that you'd need Pepto that would be romantic. I thought maybe you were going to try cooking something weird. That was quite the list you gave me."

"Did you get everything?"

She giggled. "I didn't buy the crotchless panties on the list, because that seemed ridiculous, but yes, I got everything else. So please, give me some details, because I've been dying with curiosity, picking up things like gum, and Tylenol."

"We're not going Cancun or one of those touristy places. We're going to Nayarit. I did a lot of research there. It's quite a traditional area, which is why I chose to do some research for my PhD there." I'd compared and contrasted a series of traditional societies south of the US border. "It's nice to bring some of the essentials on the list for the local people. They don't have a lot."

"You really had me with the drugstore glasses. Wow," her eyes lit up. "That should be interesting."

"There's still beaches, and hotels and all of that, but it's not so ridiculous. You have to go off the beaten path a bit to really see reality, but it's there." I'd really enjoyed my time there when I was younger. It was actually the first time I'd ever been celibate for any amount of time, finding it quite hard to go pick up some hotel girl after seeing how real the love and relationships I was researching were.

It was really the first time in my life that I realized that I wanted more. Maybe not right at that moment, but , this was going to put a bit of a damper on the whole thing, not being able to walk properly. "I guess I'll try to get into a doctor tomorrow."

Sookie nodded, her brow furrowed. "The internet says to elevate and ice. Maybe see how you're doing tomorrow?"

I smiled, patting her back. "I'm more likely to get in to see someone in the Hamptons anyway. Sorry to ruin the evening."

"You're back. You could have broken a leg and we could have all been in emergency, and it wouldn't have been ruined." She curled up, her head on my chest. "I can't believe this is really over."

I kissed the top of her head, for a second forgetting the pain in my leg in favor of the smell of her hair. "You're stuck with me, Northman."

"Ditto," she whispered. "and tomorrow, pulled hamstring or not, you're getting me off. I was literally like five seconds away."

I reached down and shoved a pillow under my leg, and looked at her, thinking logistically. "I can still get you off."

She grinned. "You know, normally I'd be like, no, you're injured. I'd be selfless. But..."

"You've been lying here naked all night, waiting for me. I get it." I pulled her over, and she straddled my chest, before sliding up a little further. "Besides, I quite enjoy getting you off. It's not like it's a hardship."

I loved when she sat on my face. Absolutely. It was a real powerplay move for her, and I did enjoy when she was an active participant in her own orgasm, guiding me to where she wanted me, and pulling back to prolong it as long as possible. Careful not to move my leg, I used one arm to steady her, and the other to work her breasts, ignoring my leg as much as possible, and focusing how soft her thighs were against my face, and how great she tasted. I never understood the objections that men had about pussy. But then again, I I never, as a rule, fucked women that engaged in a lot of the things that changed their Ph makeup to make it undesirable. It was all very simple, the same rules for general heath worked for sexual health.

And I knew the same logic applied to semen as well. It was ridiculous to expect anyone to enjoy blowing you if you tasted terrible.

She held out for ages, and her hand replaced mine on her breast, while she held onto the headboard with the other, as my fingers joined my mouth, inspiring a gasp, and a moan.

"Don't stop," she whispered, rolling her nipple between her thumb and forefinger.

I shot her a wink, which seemed to trigger something, sending her over the edge. She moved off my face, and lay beside me. "Yea, I'll sleep much better now." She grinned, but then glanced down at me. "You're hard."

"Yea, it's a weird sensation, and it's making my leg uncomfortable." I glanced down, irritated with myself for moving the wrong way.

She sat up, eying my erection. "What if I'm really gentle, and I stay away from your leg?"

I smiled. "We can try."

It was a good angle, the one she figured out, and it meant I had the added stimulus of her breasts on my pelvis, and her ass on my shoulder. "We could have probably just sixty-nined and been sleeping an hour ago," she giggled. "Oh well. Next time."

When she carefully reached down and fondled my balls avoiding my groin, I was a goner, and I smiled as she swallowed and lay her head on my shoulder. "It's good to be home."

I slept late, really late on Paris time, waking up when Ceci crawled in bed with me. I gasped, when she nearly kicked me in the leg. "Dad, it's almost ten, and I missed you."

I thanked Sookie for having the foresight to help me pull my boxers on last night. I wouldn't have thought of it, being away from the little cockblockers for so long. "I missed you too, baby."

"We're going to the Hamptons today, and we're going to have Christmas there." She snuggled into my chest. "I asked Santa for a new Barbie, and a scooter."

I hated the idea of our kids doing anything that could hurt them, but I knew I couldn't be ridiculous. And I knew she was getting both, and probably a whole lot more. "I know. I'm your mom's present."

Ce screwed her face up adorably. "I think she wanted a new purse." Clearly she'd made the same shopping trip as Pam had with Sookie.

"I may come with a new purse." I smiled at her, in her little pink pyjamas. She'd gotten bigger in three weeks even. And she looked a lot like Sookie, but with Pam's nose. And her namesake's blue eyes. "I'm back for good now. No more Paris."

She nodded, a huge grin on her face. "Mom told me. So that means we can make a snowman, right?"

"Absolutely." I smiled. "Let's go see what Mom's cooking."

I very carefully got out of bed, and realized that I needed to take another painkiller, and do some more icing, because my leg was killing me. Ceci ran ahead of me, and looked frustrated with my slowness.

Sookie was standing in front of the stove, wearing a housecoat I'd bought her a couple of Christmases ago. She'd called it impractical, because it was fairly short, but I smiled, seeing a pair of my boxers peeking out the bottom.

"Mom, you got Dad for Christmas?" Ce asked, looking at me curiously. "But he looks broken."

I carefully sat down at the kitchen table, very interested in the French toast Sookie was whipping up. "I just hurt myself, baby. I'm not broken."

Sookie stifled a giggle, before putting some toast in front of me. "Dad thinks he's younger than he is sometimes."

Max stomped down the stairs a minute later, and a huge smile spread across his face as he saw me. "I thought I heard you last night, but I wasn't sure."

I knew he wasn't much of a hugger, but squeezed the life out of him anyway. "Hey Maxkin."

He hugged back, and I winced, as he hit my leg. He pulled away immediately, kind of looking embarrassed that he'd hugged his dad. He was such a seven year old. "What's wrong?"

I sat back down. "I pulled my leg, on the plane. It's alright, just a bit sore."

He smiled, looking at the French toast on table. "I'm glad you're back, Dad. And Mom, I'm glad we're having French toast."

Sookie smiled, sliding a plate in front of him. "And I'm glad you're glad. Eat up kids," she shot me a wink, "we've got to get on the road."

Stella had decided at the last minute to go to Sweden with Johan for the holidays, so it would really and truly be a Northman family Christmas, with Pam stopping over for drinks later, after the kids went to bed. They were spending the holidays with Alcide's family at Bridgehampton, so they'd be around, but we'd have the day to ourselves, and then she'd graciously offered to take the kids to their family home while Sookie and I went to Mexico. It was only four days, but I did feel a bit bad leaving so soon after I'd gotten back.

I knew, however, that between all their new toys, and the indoor pool and the bowling alley at the Herveaux estate, they probably wouldn't miss us much at all.

I managed on my own in the shower, noting that I now had a huge bruise on my inner thigh. I called the doctor that we saw in the Hamptons, and he offered to slot me in around three, so we'd just stop on the way.

I limped around, helping pack up the cooler with everything we needed for Christmas dinner, and all the other miscellaneous things travelling with two kids and a dog demanded. We'd just started piling everything in the car, and I was helping Max scoop Lil out some dog food into a Tupperware container, when I heard Sookie shouting outside.

"Who the hell are you?"

I dropped the scoop, and went outside to see a woman pointing aggressively at Sookie, who had Ceci scooped up in her arms. "I know you fucked him. You're the reason he left," the slightly older than Sookie woman screeched. "We were just on a break!"

She wasn't unattractive, maybe in her early forties, with strawberry blond hair and was impeccably dressed. However, from the slur in her voice, it was also obvious that she was drunk.

Sookie glanced up at me, looking quite disarmed, Ce wrapped tightly in her arms. "Get off my property."

The woman looked up at me, her light brown eyes incensed. "She's fucking him, you know. Crispin. My Crispin."

Sookie exchanged a look with me. "I'm doing no such thing, and you've got three seconds to get out of here before I call the police."

Yep, our kids were going to need therapy. There was no way around it. "You don't know what you're talking about." I said, as calmly as I could, hobbling down the steps to stand by Sookie. I smiled up at Ce, whose lip was wobbling. "It's okay, baby."

"I'll ruin you, bitch." The woman hissed, moving towards us.

Sookie handed me Ceci, and pulled her phone out of her pocket, and called someone quite unexpected.

"Bones, I think we have something here that belongs to you. Yea. You've got ten minutes to get here before we call the police. Bye." She turned to me. "It's Christmas Eve. I'm not spending the day at the police station. Take Ce inside. I'll deal with this bitch."

I hesitated, but after thinking about it for a second, I realized that Sookie could very much handle herself, and I could barely support my weight and Ce. And that I also didn't want to spend the day at the police station. "I'll be back in a second."

She nodded, giving me a half smile. "No one fucks with Northman Family Christmas."

I didn't doubt her words for a second.

After putting a sobby Ce inside with Max, I hobbled back just in time to see Sookie slap the woman across the face.

I limped over and stood beside her. "Come on everyone, let's just calm down."

"No one accuses me of screwing around in front of my kids." Sookie looked at me, furious. "Bitch, you're going to wish I'd just called the police."

Every once and a while, the Jason Stackhouse came out in Sookie, and I had to admit, it kind of turned me on. "Who are you?"

The woman put her hand to her face, turning her nose up slightly, which looked ridiculous in her drunken state. "Annette De Witt."

I pulled Sookie back slightly. "And you are?"

"Crispin's life partner."

Sookie hissed. "Not according to him. And I'm his boss, you stupid cunt, not his lover."

Of course this was Bones' woman. I remembered Sookie telling me that he'd just left her in London when he moved to the states. And here she was, back to claim her man.

She could have him, as far as I was concerned. Good riddance.


	19. Get Off Of My Cloud

**So, thanks SO much for all your sweet, encouraging notes. I'm not going to let one smarmy anon turn me off writing. There's no worries there. I just don't like people trying to dictate what I do. Anyway, here's the next chapter! I hope you like, and let me know what you think!**

**Also, I have a bit of a weird pimp here, for my sister in smut's blog: Check out lubadub (dot) wordpress (dot) com. She's just written an Eric/Sookie/Bones sandwich, which is kind of like The Expat on crack. I mean that in the nicest, sexiest way possible.**

**PS. for those of you wondering, Cat will be making an appearance. All in good time.  
**

* * *

**Eric**

I held Sookie back, but she continued pelting insults at Annette. Well, they continued pelting them at each other. Finally, after about a half hour, I looked down the street to see Bones running towards us.

And I got irrationally furious. I'd been calm up until that point. I possessively wrapped an arm around her waist, and narrowed my eyes at him.

Sookie glanced up at me. "Let me go."

"No. And I don't want him on my property."

She rolled her eyes. "No prenup. This is our property. But that bitch isn't allowed." She glared at Annette. "I don't know what the fuck you're doing here, you stupid twat. I've had it with people thinking they can fuck with our marriage."

Yea, people really had been working that angle lately. However, Bones seemed to be far less calculating about it than Appius. He was like a stupid boy with a crush on someone's wife that he didn't have chance with.

He arrived at that moment, panting and wheezing, wearing ridiculous black glasses and a pair of overly fitted jeans. Fucking hipster. Sookie glared at him. "How the hell did she know where we live?"

"Be fucked if I know." Bones looked at Annette, incensed. "Are you mad? What the hell are you doing here?"

She glared at Sookie. "I came to tell your tart that she couldn't have you."

Bones glanced at me. "She's no tart, and she's not mine. Annette, you had no right."

"But you said..."

He cut her off. "I said nothing of the sort. Now, let's leave these people to their holiday."

I held my hand up, not missing the important point that Annette had tried to raise. "Wait. Annette, why did you think Bones and Sookie were carrying on?"

She crossed her arms. "Because she's all he talks about. Sookie this and Sookie that. And he stayed. He was never going to stay. I thought he'd back by Christmas, and we'd spend the holidays in Scotland, at my husband's estate like we always do." She pouted, looking at Bones, who was an unnatural shade of red. "And he told me it's over. In ten years, he's never said that and meant it."

So she was married too? This just kept getting more and more dysfunctional by the minute. Was Bones her boytoy? He was a bit old and established to be a boytoy.

And then she started sobbing, collapsing in a bit of a heap on our front stoop. Bones went to sit by her, but I raised my voice. "Not on my property."

He looked at me incredulously. "Are you kidding?"

"No."

Sookie shook her head. "He's kidding. Bones, get her out of here though."

I shot Sookie a look. "Did you tell her that you and Sookie were involved?"

"I told her nothing of the sort." He replied, his British accent annoying the hell out of me.

"You've got a lot of balls, even implying anything was going on between you, and the mother of my kids." I hissed. "And kissing her, like you did? I ought to pummel you."

"So there is something going on between you and her," Annette sobbed. "No wonder you haven't come back to me. Is it because she's younger, because her knockers are up where they're supposed to be? I said I'd have the surgery, Crispin, if that's what it's about."

"Jesus, Annette." Bones muttered. "It's got nothing to do with that. We were miserable together. We needed a change."

"I miss you," she choked out.

Sookie and I watched the scene unfold in front of us, and she kept a firm hand on my arm. "Eric, come on."

I ignored her, infuriated. "But you told her that you were involved with Sookie." I was going to murder him, slandering my wife's name like that.

"I said I had a lovely American boss. She inferred the rest," Bones sneered.

"And you let her," I growled. "You fucking prick. Didn't you think that would come back to bite you in the ass?"

He shook his head smugly. "No, I didn't. I thought I'd be able to have a normal break up and move on with my life."

I felt my nostrils flare. "With my wife."

Bones shrugged. "Well it's not as though you made much of a first impression. And you're certainly not making a great second impression either. What do you think? You're some sort of fucking Viking? A fucking brute? Come on old man. Wouldn't want you to have a heart attack or something."

I literally felt like my head was going to explode. I thought I really might kill him. Sookie held my arm firmly. "Calm, Eric. Bones, I think it's time you left."

"I'm not going anywhere with him," Annette sobbed. "Crispin, you broke my heart."

And then Sookie had had enough. "That's it. I'm done. Get the fuck off my step. I will call the police. I gave you a chance, Bones, but my patience is wearing thin. I will not have an episode of Jerry Springer on my stoop on Christmas Eve. We live in the Upper West Side for Christ's sake."

"Come on Annette. Let's leave these people be."

She got up, and Sookie and I both gasped, as she began hitting him with what looked to be a very expensive handbag. Full of bricks, from the expression on his face. "You fucking cad."

"You're drunk Annnette," he winced, as she berated him with the bag. I looked up to see Max watching from my office window, and shot him a look, which prompted him to vanish. "Sookie, call the police. Please."

She groaned, still holding me back. "Don't hit him. Remember your hamstring. I need you in some sort of form in two days. Tonight too, if you play your cards right."

I nodded. "Someday, I'm going to kick his ass."

"Not on Christmas Eve, you're not." She poked my side. "I can't believe I have to call the police." She held up her phone. "Bones, you're going to the police station with her. We need to be in the Hamptons for drinks with Pam, and you've upset our kids quite enough, you fucking cunt."

"Twice in one day, Lover," I raised an eyebrow with her. "Look at the mouth on you."

She gave me a seductive grin, as she called the police to report a drunk British woman trespassing on our property, shouting obscenities. All this fighting was kind of a turn on. "I'll have some things to say to you later, about this."

"Oh, I'm counting on it." We both stood there, arms crossed, as they continued 'rowing'. "I think you should fire him."

Sookie shook her head. "He's a damn good executive editor, even if he does have shit taste in women."

"He liked you."

Sookie snorted. "I'm a married mother of two. That's not exactly good taste."

I shrugged. "Fair enough."

She elbowed me in the ribs. "And you letting him goad you? Come on. He's only three years younger than you. Maybe four." She stood on her tiptoes and whispered in my ear, "And he's practically a whore. I didn't know she was married."

About an hour later, a squad car and two incompetent looking police officers lumbered out. "We're here for the disturbing of the peace call."

"More like stalking," Sookie quipped. "This bitch figured out where I lived somehow because she thought I was involved with him." she pointed at Bones. "He works with me. We're not involved. He kissed me, once, but my husband is aware."

The cops looked like they'd just walked into a soap opera. In effect they had, I suppose. "Okay, well, we're going to need you all to come down to the station and fill out some paperwork."

"No." Sookie said, her arms crossed. "It's Christmas Eve, and we have two small kids." She nodded up at the window to Ce's room, where they were both peeking out. Max loved people in uniform. It probably seemed ridiculously cruel that he was stuck inside, but there was no way he was coming out. Not with this gong show.

The officer crossed his arms. "Then there's not much we can do."

"Can you just take her to JFK and drop her off?" Bones said, looking pleased that she'd stopped hitting him in the presence of law enforcement. "Fucking bitch assaulted me."

The officers looked between each other. "We can take her in for that, if you're willing to come, sir."

"If it gets her out of my life, I'll certainly come." He glanced at Sookie. "Sorry about this."

Sookie nodded, her lip terse. "We'll discuss this in the new year. Merry Christmas."

He snorted. "Merry Christmas indeed."

And with that, Annette and Bones climbed in the squad car, and we were left standing there.

"Can you talk dirty to me later?" I asked, hoping she wasn't going to hit me.

"Absolutely." She winked. "Good on you, not hitting him. I'm not sure I wouldn't have in your position."

"Well I do have a sex related injury." I smirked at her, as she took my hand and led me back inside. "We should get going though Lover. It's starting to snow."

Max asked a million questions about the police, and it seemed that Ce just wanted some cuddles, to help her forget about 'Cruella', as she'd dubbed Annette. She was wearing fur. I guess to a three-year old, she fit the bill.

Hell, she kind of fit the bill anyway.

We got underway about an hour later, both of us exchanging a look about the upcoming storm that the radio was abuzz with. "I hope we'll be able to get out," Sookie said, absentmindedly, as the snow got heavier and heavier.

I shrugged. "There's not much we can do about it if not. It was a package, so if the flight's cancelled, well get a credit for another time."

She smiled, leaning over to kiss my cheek. "I don't really care where we are."

"As long as we're not completely dysfunctional?" I grinned, looking back at the sleeping kids in the rear view mirror. "Because we've seen a lot of dysfunctional, and that kind of took the cake."

Sookie snorted, shaking her head. "Uh, Bill and Mira?"

I nodded. "Right. Never mind."

After a quick stop at the doctor, the grocery store and a pharmacy, we were ready to call it quits for the night. By the time we got to the house, it was clear that we were in for a doozy of a storm. The wind had really picked up. We unpacked the car quickly, after getting the kids inside and turning the heat up. Finally, we settled in, doing a quick check of the essentials. "I think we're good." Sookie smiled, getting the kids a couple of oatmeal cookies, stopping to stick one in my mouth too. "Want some wine?"

"I'm on painkillers."

She shrugged. "So? You're on extra strength Tylenol. Just don't take any more tonight. The doctor just said to ice it. Sit down, I'll get you some ice, and have a glass of wine."

I shrugged, and did as I was told, changing into a pair of sweatpants and elevating my leg on the coffee table while I watched the weather on the news. Ce sat beside me, intently colouring, and Max had vanished with a book. We'd agreed to start Moby Dick when we got back from Mexico. It was a nice, quiet evening, and we didn't realize until the kids had gone to bed that we'd failed at Christmas, in an epic way. "Shit," Sookie hissed, as she pulled the presents out of our room. "Guess what we forgot."

I looked around. "We got the gin for Pam and Alcide. What?"

"A Christmas tree."

I groaned. "Shit."

"I didn't get one at the house, because we were doing Christmas here. With everything this week and this morning, and you with your leg, I completely forgot."

I looked out into the blowing snow and shrugged. "I don't know what to tell you. Maybe Pam has an extra one at Casa Herveaux. The kids probably won't even notice, with all the presents. Maybe we can just pile them like a tree."

She rolled her eyes. "Eric, we can't do that. We have a three year old and a seven year old. It's not like they're teenagers that will find this amusing. I'm sure somewhere along the line they've linked Santa and a tree. I think the thing with Annette caused them enough trauma today."

I sighed and reached over and picked up my phone to call Pam. "You know we're going to owe her a favour."

Sookie shrugged. "We already owe her a bunch. What's one more."

Pam happened to have an extra tree from one of the guest suites that wasn't in use, so she promised to bring it over when she came. Her and Alcide showed up at about nine, Pam looking like a perfect snow bunny, in her ridiculously large coat with the fur hood.

She stomped her boots out in the porch, and I listened, as she talked to Sookie. "It's really bad out there. Where's Eric?"

"He's on the couch. He hurt himself." Sookie said, laughter in her voice. "Come on in."

Alcide came in, carrying a small tree decorated in white crystal. "My step-mother is obsessed with white crystal. I know it's impractical. Gab has been chewing on them all week. All the fucking trees match. There are six trees. She tried to scold me for grabbing this one."

"She's a ridiculous idiot," Pam rolled her eyes. "You better hope she doesn't get pregnant and squander your dad's fortune."

Alcide shrugged. "I have my own money. And he's got an iron clad prenup."

One look at me, slightly haggard with my leg elevated, and Pam burst out laughing. "You're getting so old, Eric. You can't fuck like you did when you were thirty anymore."

I rolled my eyes. "Maybe I just pulled my leg on the plane. I cold have done that. And you're old too. You're almost forty as well."

"Or you could have been eager to prove to your baby momma that you still had it." She grinned at Sookie. "A sex related injury. I remember when you did the reading about those. And I'm only thirty-five."

Alcide snickered in the background.

Pam silenced him immediately. "Okay, I won't tell them what you did last year."

Sookie cleared her throat. "Anyway, gin? Wine? What do you guys want? We started without you. It was a bit of a stressful morning."

Pam perked up at that. "Do tell."

So Sookie recanted the whole mornings events, even dropping the c-bomb once again. Pam looked between us, kind of slack jawed.

"Not to be an asshole, but Eric, you just believed Sookie? I mean, I know you should have, but if some crazy woman came over to my place and started yelling obscenities about how Alcide fucked her, I'd at least be momentarily suspicious."

Alcide chuckled. "And then ask her into bed?"

"You do have good taste in women." She shrugged. "Maybe."

I rolled my eyes at the two of them. "I already knew about the kiss, and I trust Sookie." I squeezed her hand. "Even though she does like European men."

She shot me a look. "We talked about all this in Paris, and Bones and I had sorted everything out at work. It was only Annette that didn't get the memo."

"Well she sounds like a crazy bitch," Alcide said, getting up for another glass of gin and tonic. "I wonder if they'll hold her here on the assault charges. I doubt she'll be allowed to make her way across the pond again with a record."

Sookie shrugged. "My guess is that Bones drops the charges, and they have some passionate good bye sex. Clearly they're lacking some closure."

I didn't disagree with that. "He's a fucking slimy bastard."

Sookie sighed. "That's because he's an attractive man that I work with."

"Who wants to sleep with you." I raised an eyebrow.

She raised one back. "It doesn't much matter what he wants, does it?"

Pam glanced at the weather channel, which we'd muted. "I don't think you guys are making it to Mexico."

"They may have it cleaned up by then," I said, although I was less optimistic than I sounded. "If not, we'll figure something out." I smiled at Sookie, who patted my good leg.

"We will. You're still on kid duty, Pam." She grinned at the two of them. "They'll be a good distraction for you, from the step-monster."

"I can't believe a twenty-five year old is my step-monster." Alcide rolled his eyes. "I like Pam a bit aged. I don't get the appeal."

Sookie and I looked at each other, as Pam's face grew awfully red. "You're an asshole," she hissed, crossing her arms.

He snorted at her. "You're almost forty. You're not twenty-five. Don't be ridiculous, Pam."

"If you'd rather be married to some twenty-year old floozy, then maybe you should just go and do it."

This was not good. I knew Pam was sensitive about her age, and even after a couple of drinks, Alcide should have known better than to make mention of it.

"I said I like you because you're not one. Do you even listen when I speak?" He wasn't backing down.

"I listen, but you so rarely say anything of value that I wonder why sometimes." She snapped.

And I groaned. I was tired of people fighting in front of us, and from the look on Sookie's face, she felt the same. "Enough. Take it out in the snowstorm."

They quieted down after that, and at around midnight, Alcide called their driver and we waved them off. Sookie tucked herself into my arm, after grabbing me another ice pack. "You're not still silly about Bones, are you?"

"I don't like him. That's not going to change."

Sookie snorted. "That's fine. You don't have to like him. You just have to tolerate me working with him."

I nodded. "And I do. Just as long as he stays out of our personal life."

"Today wasn't his fault. Not initially, anyway."

I raised an eyebrow. "I'm going to beg to differ there. He didn't have to insinuate that he was seeing you. That was a really weak move."

Sookie laughed. "To get away from that crazy bitch? I don't know. I'd probably have said whatever I needed to say too."

I shook my head, slightly irritated that she was defending him, although he had gotten her off our stoop. But he was the reason she was there in the first place. "I don't want to talk about him."

She rolled her eyes. "Now you're cranky." She straddled my lap, and gave me her best pouty face. "Don't be cranky," she whispered, leaning over so her lips were against my ear. "We were going to talk dirty."

My ears perked up at that. "Oh, yea."

"And I'm just dying to have your cock buried inside me, and your big hands squeezing my ass."

She was good at this. "What else do you want?"

She sat back on her heels, avoiding the ice pack on my groin, and locked eyes with me. "I want your huge cock in my mouth, and your hands in my hair."

I grinned, as she climbed off my lap and walked into our room, leaving a trail of clothing behind her. "Alright then."

I was one lucky motherfuker.


	20. Good Vibrations

**So the Fuckaversary. I don't know that I've written a whole Fuckaversary, but here it is! According to Google, I may have originated this term, and quite a few others. I'm kind of a word creating dork. But I do celebrate my Fuckaversary. It's March 20th, in case you were wondering. Feel free to send me well wishes. **

**I also wanted to put a hit in for The Sookieverse Under The Radar pics. If you've read a story recently with less than 20 reviews per chapter and you're wondering why more people aren't reading, drop me a line and I'll tell you how you can pimp it. The Sookieverse has nearly a 1000 followers on twitter now, so it's a great way to get that story out there! It's really easy, and it feels great, helping people find new favourite stories! I pimped All The People I Love Are Dead, with Zombie!Eric a few months ago!**

**I also have a blog, where I post ramblings sometimes, and I'll probably be relocating there for a while once I finish the two fics I'm writing now, so sign up for alerts if you're interested! seastarr08 (dot) wordpress (dot) com . I'm planning on trying my hand at original vamp fiction, and finishing up some other original projects that need attention!**

**Thanks so much for reading this little story, and for all the love! Let me know what you think of this chapter! **

* * *

**Sookie**

By Christmas night, it was obvious that we weren't going anywhere. Nothing had left either JFK or Newark for twenty-four hours. We'd had a great time watching the kids unwrap their presents, and I was now the owner of the word's most perfect purse. It was a good day.

Pam had spoiled the kids, with the most expensive, ridiculous stuff she could think of, but neither Eric or myself had enough confidence in her appropriateness when it came to opening our gift, which was simply marked 'XXX Pam'.

We exchanged a look. "We'll open that one later," Eric mumbled.

"Good call." I nodded, remembering our September trip to the Pleasure Chest.

It was really great, just being the four of us, a complete contrast to Thanksgiving. This was the first year that really Ceci knew exactly what was going on, and she was adorable, grinning at us and digging into her dinner, and pushing her peas under her napkin, and sharing with Lil when she thought I wasn't looking. Max chattered along like he usually did, and I smiled as he and Eric discussed their ice fishing trip, which they were taking in January.

It was after the kids went to bed, exhausted and hyped up on sugar from the gingerbread house that Liz Compton sent over that we finally got to Pam's box.

Eric made the comment immediately. "I don't feel comfortable opening up Pam's box. Why don't you do it." The twinkle in his eye was unmistakable.

"Fine." I giggled, ripping the paper open, and snorting. "Shit. It's probably a good thing we waited."

In the box was about a grand worth of sex toys, neatly wrapped in Pleasure Chest paper. "She's ridiculous," Eric said, rolling his eyes. "I don't know why she has this constant need to interfere in everyone's sex life."

I shrugged. "It's not like she sent us a woman to have a threesome with, or a man for that matter. It's just toys." I pulled out a bejeweled butt plug and rolled my eyes.

"She knows about your anal aversions?" Eric raised an eyebrow.

I sighed. "I'm never drinking with her again."

"You didn't tell her what..."

I shook my head. "Of course not."

"Good. That's not a conversation I want to have with her." He peered into the box. "If there's another vagina in a can, I'm going to kill her."

I patted him on the back. "It's a Fleshlight and there won't be. But there is this pair of handcuffs, and some lubricant, and a bunch of other things." I pulled out a tiny finger vibrator, and stuck it on his cheek. "For someone that's so into sex, you're really uptight about the toys."

He grumbled good naturedly. "I just don't see the necessity in all this extra shit. I mean, these," He pulled out the handcuffs and the lube, "They enhance the experience. "This," he pulled out the dildo that was rather comparable to him. "is ridiculous."

"So you're a purist, is what you're saying." I giggled. "Or, are you afraid I'll find something I like more?"

He growled at me, and I stifled a snort as he pulled me over his knee. "Oh, I'm not worried about that."

"No kidding," I squealed, as he he tickled me. "But you like a bit of vibration as much as the next person."

He chuckled, grinning at me, as he held me in place and smacked my ass. "I do."

"So I guess we figured out our fuckversary theme then." I wiggled, trying weakly to get out of his grasp. "Good vibrations?"

"We have a theme? Is sex a theme?" He wasn't letting me go. "Do I have to wear the Marky Mark briefs and dance?"

"Absolutely. It's a requirement. You can shadow box too, if you'd like. Whatever you want," I gasped, as he continued to tickle me. "I'm going to pee if you don't let me go, and I know you're not into golden showers."

He released me immediately. Just because Eric was curious and accepting of things didn't mean he was necessarily into them. "Go. And then start the shower. I'll be in in a minute, and you can rub my hamstring." He grinned and waggled his eyebrows at me.

I rolled my eyes at him. "If you want to have shower sex, you can just ask for it."

He carefully stood up, and put the ice pack in the kitchen sink, and I felt myself grow tingly at his predatory gaze. "I want."

To spare his hamstring, we ended up having sex on the edge of the tub, him sitting, and me, well, being a bit more active. When we were finished, we filled up the tub, and I sat with my back against his chest, happy that we'd installed the bigger tub a few years earlier, even if we rarely got to use it. I grinned, as I felt him kiss the top of my head.

"I love you, Sookie," He whispered in my ear. "You're the best thing that ever happened to me."

I turned around and pressed my lips to his. "You too." We were really very lucky. Besides a snag here and there, I really had it all. I was married to someone that loved me fiercely, and who was really my best friend. My partner. I was really glad I'd made the effort to go to Paris, or we have been having a very different evening. But I knew what to do with him. Knew how to fix things, how to work at things to keep us going. It wasn't complicated. We were honest, stripped bare in front of one another. Always.

**Day 1 **

We sighed collectively, after dropping Max and Ce off at Pam's. "So, what now, husband of mine?" I grinned, patting his thigh. His strong, muscular thigh. I loved our fuckaversary. It was really the best holiday of all.

"Let's go home, to our house in New York," Eric said, a devious grin on his face. "And let's not tell anyone where we are. We can order food in, "

I thought of all the things our house had, and all the possible visitors we could have had in the Hamptons. Bill was down there, Pam, a bunch of Eric's colleagues. Winter break was like summer all over again. Everyone knew we spent Christmas down there. "Sold. Pam can call our cells if she needs us."

We talked in the car about our time apart, the coming year, his book, his other book, my job, the kids, Bones, Appius. It took us three times as long to get home as it usually did, because of the weather, but when we walked in the front door to complete and utter silence, it was absolutely worth it.

"So, four childless days. And we just had a week in Paris. You realize, Lover, that this is never happening again." He waggled his eyebrows and pulled off his boots. I'd teased him when he'd bought the huge snow boots a year before, but I wasn't laughing now, since my feet were soaked from walking from the car to the house.

I sighed, pulling off my wet socks. "Maybe when we're old and retired."

"Professors never retire. We just get older and more crotchety." He walked into the kitchen and turned the light on. "What do you want for dinner?"

I shrugged. "Pizza?"

He shook his head. "That's not good sex all night food." He pulled out a bottle of red wine from the cupboard. "We should eat something light, but filling."

I sat down at the kitchen table. "There's some frozen organic mixed vegetables in the freezer. We could make something with those. I think there's some chicken too."

"Go warm up. I'll make dinner." He smiled, pulling some rice out of the cupboard. "But don't warm up too much without me."

I smacked his ass, and ran a bath, quickly ran a razor over my legs, and picked out some cute underwear, before throwing some dry clothes on. Undressing was half the fun. I didn't need to make it too easy.

When I emerged about a half hour later, dinner was in full swing, and I was reminded how fantastic it was when Eric used to cook for me when we first met. I curled up on the couch in the living room, and about ten minutes after that, I was presented with a bowl of stir fry and a huge glass of red wine. "You're a god." I grinned, digging in as he sat down beside me.

"In every way, Lover," He smirked. "And we're going out for dessert."

It wasn't what I was expecting him to say, but as we got off the subway at Astor, I understood where he was coming from. The city was practically deserted because of the weather, people opting to say home over braving the inclimate conditions. Feeling warm from my wine and my bath, I couldn't have been happier, as we walked into a dessert bar that I hadn't been to. I'd heard of it, but never made the trek.

I grinned up at Eric as we took our seats. "Have you been here?"

He nodded. "Pam used to drag me here years ago when she'd get her period. They practically knew us by name, well I was the tall man, and she was the bitchy woman that ordered two desserts. I always came because there was wine. They do really good parings. Usually there's a line up, but I didn't think they'd have one because of the weather."

I had the white chocolate mousse with a muscat, and Eric had the warm chocolate tart with port. We were nearly through when I caught him looking at me. "What?"

He rolled his eyes and shrugged. "Nothing."

"Do I have something on my face?"

He leaned across the table and grabbed my hand. "You're moaning. You've been moaning for a half hour now. And you're beautiful, and I wish we'd picked something up at a bakery so we could be naked right now."

I leaned in for a quick peck. "Let me finish, and we'll go be naked."

**Day 2**

Eric eyed the egg shaped vibrator curiously. "So I guess you wear this, and I get this part." He held up a small remote.

"And you're in charge of it." I shrugged, looking out at the wall of white that was our back yard. "Could be fun."

He looked at me, a kind of feral look in his eyes. "Fun indeed. I'll put the movie on, and then I'll give you a hand with that."

I laughed as he put Kill Bill in. "Really? Kill Bill?"

He shrugged. "What?"

I shook my head. "Nothing."

He looked me up and down. "Go put one of my shirts on."

The quazi-feminist liberal part of me wanted to tell him to go pound sand when he told me what to do, but the woman inside me really quite liked it. I got up, and selected a blue dress shirt with stripes that I loved him in. It just barely covered my ass. I switched up my underwear, opting for something a little sexier, a pair of black lace boyshorts, and made my way back out to the living room.

He chuckled at me when I did a little curtsey. "Do I get to cry uncle?"

"When you want me to finish you off? Sure. But I'm going to think you're a lightweight if you can't make it a little while at least." He grinned at me, as I sprawled out on the couch and put my arms above my head. "You ready for this?"

I nodded, watching as he pushed my shirt up, and slid my panties aside, and stuck the lube soaked egg up where it went. It felt a little weird, like an oversized tampon, at first.

He leaned back against his arm of the couch, and pressed the on switch. I flinched at first, and he smirked at me. "Hey, you wanted to try everything out."

"Hey, it just surprised me, that's all." I shifted slightly, pulling my knees against my chest. It actually felt kind of good. "Now you better wield your power wisely, or when we switch it up, I won't be so kind."

"Switch it up?"

"Oh yea. We're switching it up." I winked. "I see you're in boxer briefs today. It'll stay where it needs to."

He shrugged. "Shall we make this more interesting, with, oh, let's say, a wager?"

"Person who holds out longest..."

"Gets tied up tomorrow."

I shifted in my seat, and not just from the buzzing between my legs. We actually both enjoyed getting tied up quite a bit. It was as submissive as Eric got, and I loved taking that control away from him, even for a little while. It was a real turn on for me. On the other hand, I also "Deal. Shake on it?"

He looked at me curiously, before sticking out his hand. Instead of shaking it, I sucked one of his fingers, running my tongue along the inside of it. "Sookie, Sookie." He shook his head and tisked at me. "You forget who holds the power right now."

I flinched again, as my vagina began vibrating at a different frequency. Shit. We were too competitive sometimes. "All's fair in love and sex." I raised an eyebrow, and turned my attentions back to the movie.

And began touching my breasts. First over Eric's dress shirt, but when I noticed his skin start to get a bit flushed, I upped the ante and undid the first few buttons, reaching inside and under my bra.

"That's not fair," Eric said, desperately trying to pay attention to the movie, so when his parts started vibrating he'd be able to hold out.

"It's more than fair, because it adds to my pleasure too. I'm enjoying this." I pulled down my shirt a bit. "See how much I'm enjoying this?"

He let out a tiny involuntary moan. "Fine." And the vibrations once again changed slightly, and increased.

As much as I wanted to win, the vibrating actually felt pretty good, and I have to admit, watching Eric passively controlling my pleasure while he watched TV was pretty hot. I made it about thirty minutes. "If you don't finish me off, I'm just going to come," I whispered, moving so I was in his lap. "It actually feels incredible." I'd almost slipped a few times, before I realized that if I closed my legs it made it worse. Or better, depending on how you looked at it.

Eric gave me a grin, reached around me and snaked a hand into my panties. "Let me give you a little hand there."

I arched my back against him, as he pressed his thumb against my clit, and his mouth against my neck, leaving the vibrator in place. It was a great orgasm, born of delayed gratification, and a very zealous husband. I felt tingly for ages.

I lost won the bet though, when Eric started shifting after a few minutes and I offered him a BJ. He called foul, so I let him have it. And then let him have it.

I'd kind of wanted to tie him up anyway.

**Day 3 **

Eric to struggle against the fur lined handcuffs that were holding him to the bed.

I scolded him, knowing full well he liked being scolded. "They're just sex cuffs, Eric. You're probably going to break them if you pull too hard."

"I feel like some sort of cave man," he chuckled. "Maybe next year we can do a Tarzan and Jane theme."

"I don't know what that would consist of, besides loincloths. Yea, maybe we can do that." I winked, before straddling his lap still fully clothed. "But since I have you tied up and I'm in charge," I reached into the drawer beside the bed, "I'm going to blindfold you too."

He growled a little, as I put the black sleep mask over his eyes. "You're good, Lover."

I quite liked being blindfolded, because it made everything else feel that much sharper, crisper, intense.

Everything was a bit more sensitive, and it was easy to be surprised, delightfully surprised.

I climbed off Eric, undressed, and pulled on a black silk slip that I'd bought a couple of weeks earlier, in preparation for this, the most sexy of holidays. His head moved towards mine as I lay down beside him and ran my foot along his calve. "You're like the biggest sex toy of all here, Lover, all tied up and hard," I whispered, running my tongue along his ear."

He nipped at my neck, instinctively knowing where it was. "Do your worst, Lover."

I pulled the feather tickler that Pam had supplied us with out, and Eric squealed, in a most un-masculine way, as I ran it over his chest and down his thigh. "Oh, does that tickle?"

"I'm going to end up kneeing you in the face by mistake if you keep that up." He roared, as I did my best to pin him down. "And there's nothing sexy about a bloody nose."

I tossed the feather, and ran my mouth over the head of his cock, before quickly moving to his nipple. "You know, I think I won last night. This is fun," I giggled, as I lay on his chest, and rubbed my heel against his balls.

"I don't know what you're rubbing me with there, but I like it," he chuckled, before groaning as I latched onto his nipple, and breastfucked him. "And that's your breasts, not your mouth."

I smiled. He was right. Moving as little as possible, I pulled my underwear off, and straddled him, taking him inside me completely. "What's that?"

He groaned, before arching his hips. "I _always_ know what that is."

**Day 4**

I rolled over and pressed my body against Eric's. I was exhausted, and three days of sex had really proved it. "Want to have vanilla sex this morning, and then do nothing all day?" We so rarely had time to ourselves to just do nothing. "Maybe watch _Boardwalk Empire_?"

He grinned, as he rolled on top of me. "That sounds perfect."

* * *

**So back to our regularly scheduled drama next chapter! I hope you liked! **


	21. Ghost of Corporate Future

**So yea, I vanished for a bit, but I'm back again, sort of. I'm not promising updates in any set amount of time, but you'll get them quite regularly. I have some other things in my life that I need to spend a bit more time focusing on, so yea, that's where I am. But like I said, I'll still be updating often, and there will be WBP update likely tomorrow. Thanks for hanging in there, and for the fanfication well wishes. I had a great time at home, but it's nice to be back with my little family too!  
**

**Thanks so much for reading, and letting me know what you think! I really do appreciate every comment that you take the time to leave, even if I don't respond to them all!  
**

**PS. I finished my original story on my blog, and I've actually been blogging more. So check it out if you're interested. seastarr08(dot)wordpress(dot)com  
**

* * *

**Eric**

_I rolled over and smacked the alarm clock next to my bed, and looked up to see the unfamiliar balcony overlooking the city from my bachelor apartment. The bed was stiff and uncomfortable. It didn't smell like Sookie. _

_Nothing looked like home. I was alone. _

_He had caused this, relying on my arrogance to ensure my downfall. And I'd let it go for too long, allowing him to use my wife and family as pawns in a game that we were both bent on winning. As Dean of Sciences, I'd won in some respects, but I'd lost in so many others. _

_I'd been preoccupied when I should have been adoring my wife, engrossed in academic warfare when I should have been taking my son ice fishing, plotting when I should have been watching my daughter do pirouettes at a dance recital. I'd fucked it, and as I rolled over to see a grad student young enough to be a friend of Stella's in my bed, I realized that I wasn't me without them._

I woke up blinking and gasping for air, in a much more familiar setting, Sookie's small frame tucked perfectly into my side, I realized something.

I needed to take care of this this with Appius quickly.

Sookie slowly began to stir, opening her eyes and giving me a small smile. "Hey Lover," she whispered, doing her best but failing miserably at imitating the way I said her nickname. I'd never called anyone Lover except for her, despite the infinite number of lovers I'd had.

"Promise you'll never leave me?" I whispered, pulling her on top of me.

She rolled her eyes at me, and propped herself up on her elbows. "What if you lose your mind and start screwing around on me, or if you lose all your hair, or become fascinated with parakeets? I can't guarantee I'd never leave you under those circumstances," she smirked at me deliciously. We'd watched a weird show on hoarding and woman had had parakeets. They kind of freaked me out. I didn't like birds.

"I had a dream that I was living in the apartment on the other side of the park all alone, because I'd taken too long to deal with Appius and let it consume my whole life. I was also in bed with a goth grad student. It was horrible," I whispered, wide eyed.

She patted my head, and lay her head on my chest. "This is because you're going back to NYU the day after tomorrow. I'm not going anywhere, and you know me well enough to know that I'd call you on your bullshit before it ever got to that point. It was an unspoken wedding vow. We swore to bullshit call before God, and our friends and family, and that judge, and that traffic cop that was hanging around, and I'm sure as hell not going to let any of them down."

"I think the traffic cop had a thing for Pam," I grinned, peeking down the front of her undershirt. She'd threw on some clothes for the first night in a few because we weren't sure when Pam was dropping the kids off. "And we probably shouldn't have smoked that pot with Stella last night. I blame the pot. I'd never even image sleeping with a goth." Stella had come over, in desperate need of a few hours away from Johan after being in cramped quarters with him for a couple of weeks in Sweden, while they fulfilled all their familial obligations. There was still no ring on her finger though, and I didn't ask about it.

Sookie giggled. "Don't blame the pot. Blame the half a gallon of that ridiculous rocky road ice cream you devoured."

I groaned, and patted my stomach. "Don't remind me."

"Good thing we fucked in the morning, because you were good for nothing last night, with your groaning about your stomach, and your squinty eyes." She rolled off me and sat up, glaring at me as I snapped her underwear. "Hey!"

"Get your sweet ass back in bed. It's only eight. It's not like Pam left the Hamptons at six. She's probably still in bed." I tugged at her, pulling her back on top of me. "Come on. Let's fuck before we have to face this day. It'll make it all easier to deal with."

Sookie looked down at me, her mouth tight, but her eyes twinkling. "I love plotting with you. And I actually had a thought about how we could deal with Appius."

I shook my head. "I have a hard on from checking out your breasts. Let's not waste that. We have all day to talk about The Get Me Out Of Teaching and Into Admin Plan."

She obliged me, tossing her tanktop onto the ground, before properly straddling my lap.

When Pam dropped the kids off at three, we were fully functioning adults again, ready to take responsibility for our little doppelgangers. They rushed in, thrilled to tell us about their adventures.

"They kind of bring the house back to life," Sookie whispered, as Max yammered on about Alcide taking them cross country skiing and how Pam had made it about ten feet before getting pissed off and going back inside.

It was after we put the kids to bed that I remember that Sookie had some ideas to share. "What are you thinking about Appius, Lover?"

She grinned. "That I'd like to castrate him? Oh, right. I was thinking that I might have a certain whorish editor that owes me a favour."

I cocked my head at her. "Isn't Amelia a sales manager of some sort?"

She shook hers, snorting. "Bones."

"Oh, no. Not happening. We're severing all personal ties with that asshole." I crossed my arms.

"Which is why he's perfect. There's no way Appius will connect him to us, at least not at first. I think it could work out quite well, and Bones is incredibly loyal. To me."

Loyal. It was then that I had a bit of a realization. "No, you know who is incredibly loyal? Johan."

Appius had been looking at Johan like he was a piece of meat for the last year. The situation, however, would have to be set up, just so. Johan would need to require something from Appius, and it would have to seem like he would do anything to get it. He sort of had the gay or European thing going for him, and with a bit of coaching, would certainly be able to manipulate Appius into hitting on him.

Sookie nodded, and I once again appreciated how in sync we were, when she got exactly what I was thinking. "We might be able to use Bones too. He has a pretty good excuse to be walking the halls at NYU, and Appius has been molesting Johan with his eyes for ages now."

"And you'd still have the personal satisfaction of knowing that you brought him down. Is it awful though, using your potential future son-in-law as perverted professor bait?" I tapped my chin.

She looked up, thinking hard about it. "I mean, kind of, but you could probably use someone else if you really wanted to, but using him gives you more grounds to kick up a stink since he is practically family."

"I wonder if he'd play along. Johan I mean."

"I bet he would. Remember when he beat the shit out of Clancy? He's got some pretty strong ideas about right and wrong, and what Appius was trying to do to you, and to us? That was very wrong."

"I think I'll call him tomorrow. Hey, do you have the pictures he sent over here?" I hadn't looked at them, and honestly, I was pleased that I'd been distracted enough not to think about them until now.

She unfolded herself from the couch and went out into the kitchen, coming back with an envelope with about ten photos in it, and handed them to me. "They're not even really incriminating, but if I didn't know the whole story, I would have been devastated."

She curled up beside me, as I flipped through them, growing a little angrier after each shot. "I think I'll see if Johan will post a blind item. I'm sure NYU has some sort of similar posting board as the Sorbonne. And then I think I'll get someone to notify his wife."

Sookie perked up. "Do you know who knows his wife? Jackson Herveaux's wife, Debbie. They're in the horticultural club together."

I shrugged. I hated Debbie Pelt-Herveaux. Women like her were the reason I'd avoided the Hamptons for years. "She's such a spiteful bitch. Why would she help us?"

"Because she loves to gossip. It's kind of a tit for tat situation. He would have ruined your reputation." Sookie held the pictures up. "I don't feel bad about exposing him at all."

"It would hurt her too." I thought out loud. "I don't know if I'm concerned about that though."

Sookie raised an eyebrow. "At least it's the truth. He's a filthy old man that sleeps with grad students of the male persuasion. It's not like you're saying anything that isn't true. And it's not like you're saying it. Eric, he was happy to slander the hell out of you."

And at that, I perked up. "I don't need to do anything underhanded. I can just sue him for defamation. And we can start a truthful rumour."

Sookie chuckled, shaking her head. "Yea, that is the best route. I can't believe we didn't think of that before. We've been really making this far more complicated than it has to be."

I looked at the pictures. "I need to figure out who took these, and under whose direction." It was better, to do this above board on my end. It meant that things were less likely to fall back on me, and I did have the sworn statement from Indira that her and I most certainly did not sleep together.

Sookie nodded. "And find a good lawyer."

The next morning, I dropped Max off at school and Ce at Stella's and found myself at an uptown law firm that Alcide and his father had had on retainer for years. Cataliades and Associates was rather typical in every way, but when I walked into the brightly coloured office of one of the firm's youngest associates, I wondered if I'd made the right decision.

Diantha Cataliades looked like she was about twelve, and didn't exactly inspire confidence in her polka dot dress and Chuck Taylor sneakers, but as soon as I sat down, and she started talking, I knew I'd made the right decision. She was brilliant.

"We're going to nail his ass, Eric, and not in the way he likes." She grinned broadly, after I explained a bit more about the circumstances and showed her the pictures. "I may look young, but I use it to my advantage. People underestimate me. I have a great record of winning cases."

She spoke very fast, but I was used to that, with the kids. "So I think that we wait two weeks, and see what you can get stirred up on the down low before then, and then we strike with the charges. I'd talk to his superior and let him know that you're going to sue him, just so you don't blindside them, but I'd stay away from him. I mean, you'll have to stay away from him." She tapped her pen on her desk incessantly.

I leaned back in my chair. "Okay. So I just go back to work, like everything is fine, and then in a couple of weeks we drop the defamation suit on him."

She nodded vigourously. "Oh, yes. But I'm guessing by then you'll have even more to go on. Keep your nose clean though. Carry a recorder with you. And don't hit him. That would be bad. Very bad."

"I think I can refrain from hitting him." I smiled.

More nodding. "Excellent. Just remember, we're going to nail him, and not in the good way. Say it with me."

"We're going to nail him, and not in a good way."

She nodded. "That's right. That's what we're going to do."

"Yes." I stood up, fairly convinced. "I'll be in touch."

"And no hitting him."

I nodded. "No hitting."

"Goodbye, Eric."

"Thanks, Diantha." I waved, as I headed out the door.

I hadn't planned on it, but I decided to stop into my office before picking up Ce, just to have a few quiet minutes before I had to really get back into things the next day. I turned the key, and came face to face with someone unexpected.

"Who the hell are you?"

The woman, a gorgeous redhead with hot body, dressed in a tight black dress and a pair of high black boots, covered her face with her hands from behind my desk. "Shit. I was going to pack my stuff up today."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "You've been using my office? And who are you?"

She stood up, and walked to stand in front of me. "Catherine Crawfield. Cat. I'm part-time faculty." She hastily extended an ink stained hand unapologetically. "And I've been using your office. Doctor Ocella assured me it was fine."

I waved my hand at her. "Take the afternoon to pack up."

She looked at me curiously, leaning on my desk. "You don't remember me, do you?"

I looked at her, harder. "I was on your PhD committee a couple of years ago. You did your dissertation on prostitution and on its affect on women who have been doing it for different periods of time. It was fascinating. And you were at Yale." I'd taken the train up for the weekend, alone. It had been bliss, even though I felt guilty for leaving Sookie with baby Ceci and Max for two nights.

She smiled brightly. "Yea, I have a lot of respect for your work. I used some of your research for my thesis. And I taught your class this fall. And I'm in your office. I'll have it back to normal tomorrow. Cute kids." She nodded towards the picture of Max and Ce that was on my bookshelf.

"You used my book this fall, right?" Sookie would have been livid if that order hadn't come in.

She laughed. "Of course. And your syllabus, and your notes, which I fished out of your filing cabinet. I don't know how you get up there and talk about sex in front of all those eighteen year olds."

I snorted. "Yea, it's not something I have a problem with. What's your area again? I just know that I was on your committee because I do some, or rather, I did some work with prostitutes."

"Criminal psychology is my area specifically, but there's some overlap, since I do deal with sex crimes." She sighed. "I really wanted to make a better first impression."

I shrugged. "As long as you ordered my book for fall, we're good." I turned to leave, but I felt her hand on my arm.

She smiled, awkwardly. "Um, look. Can we get a coffee?"

I froze. There was no way he was trying this again, with someone else. She had her PhD for Christ's sake. There was no way she'd be this stupid or desperate. "I have to pick up my daughter."

She nodded, glancing out the door. "That's fine. I'll tag along."

She was acting most unusual, as I locked the door of my office behind her, and we headed down the hallway. I noticed her looking over her shoulder a bit, as we quickly made our way out of the building, walking at a speedy pace.

Finally, when we were at my car, she whispered, "I know this is weird, but I need to talk to you."

I shrugged, unlocking the doors."Sweetheart, as long as you just want to _talk_ to me, that's fine. And just so you know, I'm recording our conversation, and it better be something you're willing to say in front of a three year old."

She raised her eyebrows. "I'll say the dirty bits first."

I pulled out my phone, and hit the record button. "Go ahead."

Cat furrowed her brow. "I'd prefer this be an off the record conversation. It's for your own good."

I shrugged. "It'll be off the record, but I'm recording in case it needs to come back on the record. You'll have to excuse my paranoia. I've had a few things thrown at me recently that warrant it."

She nodded. "I would imagine. Just turn the recorder off."

I shook my head. "Nope."

She rolled her eyes. "Fine. Appius is trying to screw you. Hard, and not in the good way."

My life was all sex allusion. "I know that, but believe me when I say, I have bigger balls, and I'm a lot harder to screw than he thinks I am. I retained council this morning."

She raised her eyebrows. "Good. He's been trying to get dirt on you all fall. I don't know what he has, but he's really been running you into the ground. I was surprised, since you were part of the reason I applied here."

"What's he been saying, and why did you decide to tell me?" Her motivation for that was as important as anything she could say. I needed to know the cost because I took her up on her offer of help.

"Because you show a hell of a lot more promise as someone I'd like to learn from than him," she spat, her eyes hard. "He's a twisted monster. He's just been saying that you're not as great as everyone makes you out to be, and that you're inappropriate with your students in lecture, and that you're, well, basically you're a whore. Everything is a game to him. "

"And we are all players," I grinned. "Welcome to academia."

She shook her head. "I don't play like that. Call me crazy, but I think people should be judged on the merit of their research."

"It's a nice thought." I smiled at her. "Stay in the car if you want. I'm going to get my kid."

I quickly grabbed Ce, and she looked at Cat curiously as I buckled her into her carseat. "Who are you?"

Cat smiled back sweetly, a contrast from a few minutes earlier. "I work with your daddy."

That seemed to satisfy her, and she smiled at me in the rear view mirror. "I want McDonald's."

"I'm making dinner baby. Not today."

"Claudine let us get McDonald's," she said, with determination in her voice.

"Do I look like Claudine?" I turned around, and raised my eyebrows at her. Sookie would find that interesting, since Claudine had gone on and on about the organic meals she prepared. "Come on, Ce."

She glared at me. "Go back to Paris."

Ouch. "Nope. Sorry, you're stuck with me."

Cat smiled at our interaction. "So I guess we're not going for coffee?"

I shook my head. "Does the little one look like she needs sugar? Sorry, if there's more to talk about, we'll have to continue it another day. Where can I drop you off?"

"Grand Central is fine. I've been staying in Brooklyn with my mother, which is pure hell. And I don't mean the commute."

I smiled. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

She nodded, looking at me for a minute as I pulled up on a side street near the station. "I want tenure track. Can you help me with that?"

I chuckled. "Cat, if you help me oust Appius, I'll rent you the basement apartment in my house for five hundred bucks a month and hand type your application, while making you dinner. If things go how I'd like them to, I can certainly help with that."

She gave me a curt nod, a huge smile on her face, and extended her hand. "Great. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

I shrugged. "That has yet to be seen. Goodnight Cat."

She got out and I pulled away from the curb, glancing back at Ce, who was grinning, over her brief tantrum from earlier. "I like her."

I nodded. "She's alright." And she was. She'd gone out of her way to help me when it probably would have been easier to back Appius. She had morals and values. I respected that.

After picking Max up, and starting dinner, I started wondering how much damage Appius had really done while I was gone. I figured I'd find out more tomorrow, when everyone was around. I know how the department loyalties went. Stan Davis would take my side, even though I didn't care for him, and I had several grad students that would do the same. And I had Cat. Alexi would side with Appius, but he was a junior professor with poor social skills. It all came down to the all powerful Russell Edgington, undergraduate Dean.

Luckily, although she didn't know it yet, Sookie was my ace in the hole when it came to Russell.

I just hoped it wouldn't come to that.


	22. Us

**See, I'm still writing away, honest! Thanks for reading, and letting me know what you think! **

**I'm posting on my blog more, and I'd love it if you checked it out! seastarr08 (dot) wordpress (dot) com! **

* * *

**Two weeks later...**

**Sookie**

"Oh, hell no." I crossed my arms over my chest, and raised an eyebrow at my husband.

"Sook, please," he pleaded. "It's just lunch. Just have a conversation."

"It's not just a conversation. It's me, having to listen to that idiot and his ridiculous ideas, and then turn them into something that sells a thousand copies minimum. It's unethical."

I'd known this was coming. Eric had been weird for a week, and kept dropping casual mentions about Russell Edgington into our conversations. He'd never really come up before. At least not in the respectful way that Eric was talking about him now. He'd also been super helpful tonight, bathing the kids and bringing me in a glass of wine before he dropped the book bomb.

Eric shook his head. "He's got his PhD. I know you can publish anyone with a PhD."

"And two clues to rub together. Besides, I don't do that anymore." I hadn't signed a book since Ce was a baby, and even then, it was only because the author was a big deal.

"You do it with me."

I rolled my eyes. "I do a lot of things with you. It doesn't mean I want to do them with everyone."

"I'll get you off with no reciprocation for a week. Two weeks." He waggled his eyebrows. "And I'll do the dishes."

I groaned. Those things sounded good, but he was being ridiculous. "You're crossing a lot of personal and professional boundaries here. I can't publish a book on diogenes syndrome. There are no courses."

"But there's that hoarders show. Diogenes is all the rage."

I leaned back against the counter, trying to not be swayed by the devilish look in his eyes. "Is NYU going to offer a course?"

"It's unlikely. It could be used in an intro course as a supplement, and you'd get some trade sales out of it, I'm sure. He's quite well know. He was on Dateline."

Dateline. He'd been on Dateline for three seconds. We'd mocked his moth eaten tweed. "He'd have to be on Oprah for me to be interested."

Eric shrugged. "That's no so farfetched. Wouldn't you rather have the book started before he's on Oprah?"

I snorted. "He's not going to be on Oprah. The man is an idiot. And a hoarder. You've seen his office." It was appalling. He saved every newspaper, every business card. I'd made the mistake of wandering in there one day early on in my career, and been stuck for the better part of an hour, while he talked about pet hoarding, which was appalling in itself. I'd wanted to die. The smell alone, musty books and old sandwiches was almost enough to do me in. "I can't in good conscience publish his book. I don't think he'd write a good one."

Eric looked at me deadpan. "No offence, Lover, but you publish lots of shit. You did a book that sold twelve copies, if I remember correctly."

I glared at him. "I didn't sign that. I'd have to take it through the proper channels. If people hated it at the review stage, I wouldn't do it. And I'm not doing it anyway. We don't have a psychology editor at the moment, so it would fall to Bones." Hallow, the psychology editor was the first person I fired when I'd been promoted. And it had felt incredible. She'd been a real cunt.

Eric rolled his eyes. "I don't want him in my department."

I snorted. "But you want your wife to go flirt it up with some old stinky hoarder and do a book that I don't want to. It's Bones or nothing. And it's not your department. At least not yet."

"I need Russell on my good side, Sook. He's been rambling on about wanting to publish his forth year course notes forever. I think if someone approached him, he'd feel honoured and grateful, and I don't know if Bones doing it would go as far as you doing it, since we are married and do share a last name." He gave me a pouty face. "Please?"

He was right. He'd make the connection if I emailed. I got it. I did. And we had signed worse books. But I hated Russell. "Here's the deal. I'll email him, make my excuses for not coming myself and tell him Bones will be in. And you can accompany Bones, so the link is there."

I'd spent an afternoon with Bones after Christmas, and we'd talked through the events of Christmas Eve. At the end of it, I'd felt quite bad for him, even though he was a douche to Eric. But Eric was a douche to him too. And Annette was a psycho. Professionally, Bones and I were good. I wasn't going to be his best friend or anything out side of work, and I understood Eric's feelings on the subject, but we worked well together, and that meant a lot.

He groaned. "I hate Bones."

I shrugged. "I hate Russell Edgington. It's Bones' job to do this. Take it or leave it. It's a stretch anyway." It wasn't really a stretch. It was probably a growing area, but I was going to make damn sure that Eric didn't make a habit of using me like this. I knew it was ultimately for us, to get Appius out of our lives and Eric in a better place, but I didn't like it. I think what bothered me most was that this situation had made Eric a bit desperate. It was very out of character for him.

"Fine. But tell him it doesn't change anything, and don't tell him why he's doing it. I don't want him knowing our business."

I rolled my eyes. "Yea, not everyone at work needs to know how juvenile you academics can be. Not that they don't know anyway." We had a lot of meetings that digressed to oddball professor story time. As much as I tried to keep them in line, it was usually very amusing.

He shot me a look. "I'm being very grown up about this. Remember, I'm seeing a lawyer."

"I'm just teasing." I poked his side. "How's the overheard on campus page?"

"Seventy-two posts. All more sordid than the last." We'd left Johan out of it, instead opting for an undergrad student that Eric had a bit of a relationship with that had complained about Appius' attentions in the past. Eric didn't even have to ask him. He'd simply mentioned that someone had the Sorbonne had taken someone down by writing on the overheard on campus board, and Alexi's eyes had lit up. I didn't want to know why he wanted to bring him down, and I had the feeling I didn't want to know.

Two weeks later and the rest was dirty academic history. With Eric's newly launched lawsuit, and a serious of academics in various stages of their careers coming forward with complaints about him, combined with the massive overheard post, Appius all but was toast.

And Eric wanted to clean up the crumbs. Every last one of them. My husband was ruthless. But I'd always known that. "So, where are you, with Appius?"

He grinned. "There's an academic hearing next week to determine what they're going to do with him. As you know, the bastard is well connected. His wife plays bridge with the university president's wife. I don't think that'll save him though. Not with the people that are crawling out of the woodwork with complaints similar to mine. Some really well established people. Cat's been helping me keep everything organized and Diantha's been really great at keeping abreast of everything."

Ah yes, Cat. Who was moving into our basement in a few weeks. I wasn't sure how I felt about that. We'd had her over for dinner last week, and he was nice, and didn't go all moon eyed over Eric, like some younger academics did. She was very straight up, and after hearing about how terrible her mother was, I didn't have the heart to say no. It was just sitting there empty, and if anyone knew about having housing issues in New York, it was me. Hell, it was how I'd ended up living here too.

Yea, I wasn't sure how I felt about that. Eric figured it would be short term, and he'd sworn up and down that I could opt out of it at any time, and she'd leave. Cat had said the same thing. And that she'd babysit on occasion. I wasn't going to leave the kids with her right away or anything, but once I was a bit more comfortable with her, it would be kickass to have another person to give us a night off now and then.

"And Cat's really moving in?"

He nodded. "As long as you're okay with it. She's really a great person. I think you two will get along well, and if you want, you can pocket the six hundred bucks a month sometimes. Go shopping. Or we could use it for vacations, or the kid's college funds. We won't even see her."

He was right. The basement had its own entrance, which Johan had never used because he liked to raid our fridge. I had a feeling that Cat would be more respectful. And it would be good to have someone here while we were at the Hamptons. Stella stopped in from time to time, but we'd always been a bit concerned about leaving the house empty.

"I know. And she was nice at dinner last week. And she brought good wine." I put my feet up in his lap, and he tickled the bottom for a minute, before I pulled them away. "And I do realize how lucky I was to find you as a roommate not so long ago."

"I can assure you, our arrangement was entirely different." He winked, pulling my feet back into his lap. "This is my good karma deed for the year, since I've been quite lucky."

We were lucky. This could have ended far worse than it had, in a variety of ways. It looked like Appius was going to be ousted, and Eric would likely get his position, take on a few grad students, and retire to a cushy administrator role for the next few years, and possibly beyond. "So, dishes, and you're my sex slave for the next two weeks." I grinned.

He chuckled and raised his eyebrows. "But you're not going to talk to him."

"I'm making it happen." I stood up, and nodded towards our room. "Come on. I've got to be up early in the morning."

A minute later, as I brushed my teeth, I looked up to see Eric behind me in the bathroom mirror, and I smiled as he buried his face in my hair, and wrapped an arm around my waist, smelling me like he did sometimes. "Thank you," he murmured.

I gave him a little shrug. "You don't have to say thanks. I'm doing it for us, although I really don't think it's necessary. I think you'd get the job anyway." I smiled at him in the mirror. "You're you."

He nodded, pushing my shirt up a bit, and I let out a little sigh as his fingers grazed my bare stomach. "Maybe, but I don't want to take any chances. I want that job. I want to research again, and not be a teacher monkey to a bunch of seventeen year olds. Leave that for Cat and other youngsters."

"You're so ornery in your old age," I whispered, as his hand dropped to take mine after I set the toothbrush on the counter. I walked behind him as he led me into our room and pulled me onto his lap. "I thought you were doing my bidding," I said quietly, before he pressed his mouth against mine, forcefully silencing me.

"You don't have to tell me what to do," he murmured, his lips on my neck, as he pulled my hair out of its ponytail. "I already know what you want."

"What if I want something different?" I moaned, as my shirt was tugged over my head, and his tongue grazed the top of my breast, narrowly avoiding exactly where I wanted it to be.

Hell, who I was kidding? Eric knew what he was doing. I didn't have to give him direction. "Different?" he chuckled. "You come up with different, and I'll do it."

I sat back on my heels and thought about it. Was there a surface we hadn't christened? A position we hadn't tried? And then it hit me. "We haven't done it in the kitchen. Ever."

Eric shrugged. "So we haven't. That's because the kids are up the stairs right by the kitchen, and we aren't good at disguising sex as something that we'd do in the kitchen. Sex and cooking? They'd see right through that. And as fun as it is to be dangerous, it's not worth the risk of being busted by Ce."

That was true, and I knew how long it took to get Ce back to bed once she was up. "Next time someone has them for the night?"

He nodded. "Sold. But for now? I think we have all we need at our disposal here." He gestured to our room. "So Mistress, where would you like me?"

I did like being the boss sometimes. "Take off your clothes, and get on your knees."

He gave me a sloppy grin. "Yes, Ma'am."

He obliged me, and even let me ogle him without calling me on it, which was rare. When I joined him in the buff and lay on my back, he knew what I was up to. My legs went up his body, and I made a weak attempt to hook my ankles behind his head, knowing that it wasn't really doable. He was too damn tall.

However, this position hit my g-spot every time, without the aid of his fingers. Yea, I liked this position. And Eric did too, as it gave him access, rather openly, to all of me.

Who ever knew I'd be a sexpert by osmosis. I could have counted the positions I'd tried on one hand before he came along. Now we'd tried almost every one in the Joy of Sex.

I kissed Eric's cheek afterwards, and let my lips linger briefly on his stubble, enjoying the texture. "Well, you weren't exactly slaving away there, but kudos all the same."

He chuckled. "I know you'd never leave me hanging, or not hanging, or whatever the phrase would be. If you don't want to email him about the book, you don't have to."

I smiled. "I know I don't have to, but I will."

**Eric**

It was a couple of days later when I looked up to see Bones darkening my doorway. My eyes met his, and the tension was palpable. If this was some attempt on Sookie's end to have us befriend one another, it wasn't going to happen.

"Crispin," I said, coldly.

He gave me a curt nod. "Professor Northman."

For anyone else in his position, I would have corrected him, and told him to call me Eric. But not him. "Come on. I'll show you to Russell's office."

He tightened his lip. "I'm quite capable of finding my own way. I'm not sure why Sookie instructed me to have you accompany me."

"Because she's your superior, and she can instruct you to do whatever she pleases."

"Within reason," was his reply.

I raised my eyebrows, and he quickly walked behind me. I was so distracted and irritated with his presence that I practically ran Cat over.

"Shit, sorry Cat."

She laughed. I really liked Cat. I didn't usually like anyone. "It's okay, clearly you're on a mission..." And then her voice trailed off as she noticed Bones. She awkwardly held her notes under her arm, and extended her hand. "Catherine Crawfield."

It was one of those weird moments, where people seemed to forget the world around them existed. Bones dropped his bag, and held his hand out as well, awkwardly jostling me since I was in front of him. "Crispin Russell." He fumbled in his bag for a minute. "Here's my card. I'm Eric's editor."

My nostrils flared. "He works for Sookie." I glanced at Cat, who wasn't listening to me. "Sookie is my editor."

He wasn't acknowledging me either. "I do the psychology list at the moment, although I am the executive editor. Perhaps we can meet for coffee, and talk about your research?"

Cat blushed. "I'd like that, a lot."

"Do you have a card, Catherine?" He smiled at her, and I wanted to smack the grin off his face. This guy was the ultimate womanizer. I made a note to discuss that with Cat later.

"Oh, it's Cat." She set her folders down and pulled one out of her purse. "Send me an email sometime, and we'll set something up."

Bones continued to grin dumbly. "I'd like that. I'll see you around Cat."

She walked away, and for the first time since I'd met him, Bones actually looked pleasant. "What's her area?"

"You're meeting for coffee. You can ask her then. Russell's office is over here." I knocked on the door, uninterested in helping him further his agenda with Cat. She was too good for him.

Russell answered instantly, as he was waiting for us. "Eric," he exclaimed. "This is just fantastic. And you must be Crispin. Sookie said you were just the best." Russell had this kind of put on southern accent. It wasn't like Sookie's but it was rather pronounced. Especially when he said 'fantastic'.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. "I'll leave you two to it then. Sookie said to let you know that she's sorry she couldn't come, but that she left you in her most capable hands." Even though I highly doubted that.

Russell grinned broadly at Crispin. I'd never seen someone so excited about meeting an editor. I guess his courses didn't exactly make publishers swoon, with their ten to fifteen students a year. "Eric, I'm going to email you about lunch next Wednesday. Clear your afternoon."

Yep, he was over the moon. I smiled. "I'll do that. If you have any questions about publishing with the press, let me know."

Russell nodded. "It's been very good for you. I'll certainly have some questions."

And with that I was off the hook. I got back to my office, and sat down, and thirty seconds later, Cat was standing in my doorway, holding a coffee for me, and one for herself. "Do you have a minute?"

I nodded, gesturing to the chair in front of my desk. "Sure."

She smiled, brightly, sliding my black with one sugar across the desk. "What do you think, about me publishing a book? I'm about the same age you were when you started yours."

I shrugged. "I'd wait until you have tenure, or are at least on track. You'll get more credit for publishing in journals than writing textbooks at this stage, and it's a lot of work."

She nodded thoughtfully. "That's good advice. So we're okay for this weekend? I hired a moving truck last night, but I can cancel it if it's not okay."

I smiled. "It's fine. More than fine. It's just sitting there empty, and Sookie and me both know how expensive things are in the city. I'm happy to help you out." Even though it was very unlike me to help anyone out that I wasn't related to. "Give us a shout when you're on the way, and we can help you unpack. We're around this time of year, but we kind of vanish to the Hamptons after May, so it'll be good to have someone in the house."

"Seriously, I owe you my first born, now that I'll be able to have a life away from Mother, and possibly meet someone to have a first born with someday," she laughed. "Seriously, moving home when I left Yale got this job was hell. Absolute hell."

"I moved out at twenty. I couldn't have imagined going back. So you're not seeing anyone?" These were questions I probably should have asked, before letting her move in, but I just had such a good feeling about Cat.

She shook her head. "Honestly, I haven't had the time, with finishing my PhD and trying to get tenure, and online dating scares the fuck out of me."

"Yea, it can be a challenge, meeting someone that understands the focus it takes to keep researching and producing new research, really for a lifetime. I think it's why a lot of academics marry other academics, because they get it. I used to drag Sookie out with me when I researched, before we started dating, and when we first got together." I smiled, thinking back on her in that grimy restaurant with my prostitutes. "It was really out of her realm as my editor, at the time. But she gets it." She'd always gotten it, because she was driven as hell herself.

"I can just imagine taking a date to a woman's prison. How romantic." She laughed. "Although I guess what you do isn't much more appealing."

I shook my head. "Ah, no. Especially not what I used to research. I'm very tame now, compared to my early career research."

"I've read all your papers, remember?" She winked, standing up. "So I'll see you on Saturday."

It was about an hour later, when I heard Bones' cocky British accent across the hall in Cat's office. I thought about poking my head out, but when I heard them making plans, I decided to mind my own business. I wasn't her advisor, or her dad. If she wanted to have coffee with an asshole, that was her call. She'd see right through him anyway. I was confident in that.

I finished my office hours around four, and was just leaving for the day when I looked up, to see Appius in my doorway. I fumbled in my pocket, turning the recorder on my phone on. "What can I help you with?"

He narrowed his eyes at me. "You haven't won this, Eric. Don't think this is over."

"I don't think we should be talking about 'this', with my lawsuit pending, Appius. Do you have anything related to my courses that you'd like to discuss?"

He crossed his arms over his chest. "You're taking over my third year course effective this week. I'm taking stress leave. Not a forced leave."

Fuck. An extra course. That wasn't what I wanted. I wondered if he'd gotten out of his hearing, and NYU was just going to make him disappear instead. Either way. "Well, send along the paperwork, and I'll look at it."

He looked at me smugly. "There is no paperwork. As in I have no notes to pass along."

I looked back at him, deadpan. "You can't expect me to take over your course without notes in a week. It's unfair to the students. I need to familiarize myself with the material."

He shrugged. "Yea, I guess you do. Have a wonderful evening."

I missed the department secretary by ten minutes, to confirm which of his courses I was covering. I hoped it was the methods course, because we had very different research areas. I could do a methods course. However, with Appius, it was likely to be his seminar course on some bizarre topic relating to his research. I already had a full courseload as well. After thinking about it on the way home, I wasn't even sure if he was allowed to give out courses like that, so I sent Russell a meeting appointment for the next afternoon to figure out what was going on.

I'd left Ce with Stella for the afternoon, and she met me at the door, running at full speed into my knees, and wrapping her arms around them. "Dad. Stella is getting married, and I get to be the flower girl." She jumped up and down. "And I get to wear a dress and walk in front of everyone like a model at Pam's Fascism shows."

Clearly the History Channel had been on around the house a bit too much lately, however, I found Ce's mispronunciation amusing, especially when it came to Pam and fashion. "What?" I looked up to see a very smiley Stella, and a relieved looking Johan sitting at the kitchen table. "You finally said yes?"

Stel hugged me too. "Shut up. Can we get married at the Hamptons?"

So we were already wedding planning. The Hamptons would be cheaper than New York. "Okay? Why the change of heart?"

And then I had a thought. Shit. Was she pregnant? I was not ready for that.

They glanced at each other, and exchanged a knowing look, before Stella rolled her eyes at me. "I'm not pregnant. I know that's what you're thinking. He just found a way to ask that made me want to say yes."

From the red that came over my daughter's usually unblushable face, I didn't really want to know.

"Alright then. Just let me know when you have the details, and the bills for things." I reached over and shook Johan's hand. "Congratulations. I'm glad you two worked through your issues. It's really an important part of being married."

Ce did her up arms, and I scooped her up. "Dad, I'm going to throw petals, and Max doesn't get to do it."

"I don't get to do what?" Max tromped in, dropping his bookbag by my feet, and was followed by Sookie a minute later.

"Be a flower girl. Consider yourself lucky." I ruffled his hair. "Your sister is getting married."

Sookie raised her eyebrows, as she pulled her boots off. "She is?"

Stella smiled genuinely. "I am."

Sookie looked at me, and then at Johan. "Well that's great. Do you guys want to stay for dinner? We should celebrate."

Stella shook her head. "Not today. We have plans. But maybe next week?"

I nodded. "Give us some notice, and we'll take you out."

They left, and we settled into our usual evening routine of eating dinner, and listening to the kids' recount their day. Max was learning about weather, and was very excited about our ice fishing trip next weekend. Ce had spent the afternoon talking about weddings with Stella, and I laughed when I figured out why Stella had finally said yes.

"I asked Stella to marry Johan. He gave me five dollars."

Sookie looked at me amused. "He must have been pretty sure she'd say yes."

I raised my eyebrows. "I'd hope so." That could have turned out terribly, but was far more innocent than I'd imagined. "How did it go with Bones and Russell?"

Sookie shrugged. "I don't know. He didn't come back to the office, or answer his phone when I called. I'll find out tomorrow, I guess."

"He was talking up Cat."

Sookie laughed. "Now wouldn't that be funny. Cat's far too normal for him."

I chuckled. "You should have seen him. He got all fumbly around her."

Sookie gave me a knowing smile. "Interesting. She is very pretty, and so much classier than Annette."

I shook my head. "She asked me about writing, and I advised her against it, until she has tenure, so I doubt they'll have much to talk about."

Little did I know how wrong I was.


	23. Brainy

**So, this chapter is brought to you by the letters B O N E S. Because he kind of took it over. Anyway, if you're not reading The Night Huntress series, CLOSE THE FANFICTION WINDOW AND GO READ NOW. Because you're missing out. Anyway, thanks so much for all the love, and keep it coming! It makes me squee. Don't you want me to squee?  
**

* * *

**Sookie**

Bones called in sick for the next three days, which I found incredibly irritating, since I was curious how it had gone with Russell. When I got the voicemail on the third day, which he'd left at six in the morning, I decided to finally call him back.

"Are you alive? Do I need to call search and rescue?"

"Just the flu, Lu...Sookie. I'll be back in on Monday."

He sounded put on sick. Not real sick. I'd ponder that later. "I wanted to know how it went with Russell?"

Another fake cough. "Yea, good. He's going to send me a proposal in a few weeks. You can take a gander if you please."

"Okay then. Well, feel better." I hung up, slightly confused. Was he looking for employment elsewhere? Or had he decided to slack now that he was off probation. I didn't think that was the case, but I really didn't know what to make of his mystery illness. I hoped Eric hadn't been a huge ass to him when they'd seen each other at NYU. I hadn't really asked about how their interaction had gone.

I left work a bit early, since it was Friday, and I'd stayed late a lot all week, since Bones wasn't around. I was excited to see Eric's winter boots in the doorway when I got in, and I grinned, as I heard Ce's scamper across the living room floor, and appear in front of me, filthy from head to toe. "Mom, I helped Dad put new lights in downstairs for Cat."

I hadn't even thought of that. Eric emerged from the basement a minute later, hot and sweaty in a way that did a lot for me. I loved him in carpenter mode. "Yea, I probably should have hired someone to paint down there." He lifted up his shirt and wiped his forehead with it. "I started changing lights, and now it looks like it needs it."

"We can do it tomorrow, or let Cat pick out her own color."

He went to the sink and washed his hands. "I have some paint from when Johan moved in, but I didn't dare start with Ce here. She would have been covered with it. It was bad enough, getting her to hand me lightbulbs. I was afraid she'd cut her hands on them. And then it would smell like paint when she moved in."

I did love Eric in daddy mode. "Bones' meeting went well. Russell's going to submit a proposal."

He grinned, setting Ce up on the counter and washing her hands as well. I didn't say anything, but washing her hands before she ran all over the house while he was downstairs would have been a good call. I smiled to myself, imagining the damage she could have done at Pam's. "And I have lunch with him on Wednesday. Hopefully I can sort this extra course stuff out a bit more."

I felt bad for Eric, being saddled with an extra course, but he'd made the best of it, and bitched until he got an extra TA. Luckily one of the students that he knew a little bit had been kind enough to give him his notes and the half assed syllabus that Appius had given them at the beginning of the term, so he was making it work. He'd also argued his way out of teaching a course in the spring, which was a real bonus. "You've already turned it around in your favour, since you won't have to teach in the spring."

He shrugged. "I want Appius canned. He's really let those students down, and this is just another example of how his behavior makes the department look bad."

"Patience, Lover." I winked, drying Ce's hands. "Now, do you want to pick up kid two, or do you want me to do it?"

"I'll go. Can you start dinner though?" He patted his stomach. "I'm starving, and me and Ce just had brunch today."

They'd been in bed, asleep when Max and I left this morning. She'd crawled in with him after I got up, which meant they had sucky time for a couple of hours. Eric had considerably softened on his 'no kids in bed' policy, at least in the mornings. If he wasn't teaching, I had no idea how long they lazed around for. She wasn't in her PJs when I got home, which wasn't always the case. He usually worked in the living room while she played or watched TV, and then they'd take Lil for a walk. I guess they'd been busy today though, getting the basement ready.

"What do you want?"

He looked at Ce, his eyes twinkling. "We want gumbo, don't we?"

She nodded her head. "We have everything. Dad checked."

"So you two had this all worked out, huh?" I put my hands on my hips, and narrowed my eyes at them playfully. "I see."

"Mom, Dad can't make it like you do," Ce whined. "Please?"

I ruffled the top of her head. "Yea, I can throw some together. But you've go to go with Dad to pick up your brother, and pick up a pecan pie. From the Little Pie Company. It's on the way."

The colour drained from Eric's face. "Do we need to have a talk?"

I'd eaten a lot of pecan pie when I was pregnant with Ce, sent him out for pie after pie. I rolled my eyes at him. "You're good, but you're not that good. We don't need to talk."

"It just seems too easy sometimes, you know? After so many years of being careful." He grinned and carried Ce out to get her coat. "Do you want anything else?"

I laughed. "Ice cream and pickles. Wine."

He pulled on his coat, and kissed me, as I leaned in the doorway. "Can you look downstairs and let me know if there's anything I need to do? I think it's liveable, but I'm a guy."

I nodded. "We should pick up a new toilet seat and maybe one of those reed diffusers. How does it smell down there?"

"Good. I had the windows open for most of the afternoon. It was a bit musty, but you should close them. Bye!" he shouted, as they left.

I never went into the basement, and as I walked down, I remembered that it wasn't such a bad place. In fact, if Eric had offered me his basement when I first had my housing issues and was trying to professional with him, we may never have gotten together, because I would have been quite content down there. It had a fairly large living space, and a good sided bedroom. It was a little dated, sure, but still pretty nice. Nicer than the place I'd shared with Tara.

He and Ce had done a good job cleaning up too. They'd replaced a few light fixtures, and the floor shone. Johan had done a lot work when he lived down there for free. We'd agreed he'd pay to retile the kitchen area, and we'd split on an Ikea kitchen. The bathroom was a bit dated, with its avocado coloured tub and matching toilet, but she was paying peanuts for rent, and they were clean and perfectly fine.

I pulled the window shut, and headed back upstairs.

Cat arrived around nine with her truck full of things, and both kids were really excited about their new quazi roommate. She brought them each an age appropriate book, which I was impressed with, since she didn't have kids. Eric and Max went off to get the toilet seat, and I sat down on her newly moved in couch, as she took a breather.

"So, I hope you're alright with everything. Eric mentioned that he wished he'd painted, but we ran out of time, and it would have stunk in here, since you won't be able to have the windows open for a few months."

She exhaled, a huge grin on her face, and pulled her fiery red hair back in a ponytail. "Sookie, I don't care about that. Hell, you didn't even have to clean. Another week with Mom and I would have killed her. We have, well, issues. Always have. Always will. It's why I moved away in the first place, and it nearly killed me to have to come back."

"Well then a little distance should do you both good then."

Cat grinned. "God, I hope so."

"So, I know we're down here today, but this is really your place. Lock it from your side, and you won't hear from us. My future son in law lived down here for quite a while, and the only time we saw him was when he wanted to raid the fridge." God, Johan was going to be my son in law. He was only five years younger than me. I wasn't old. I wasn't going to have to wear some matronly dress.

Cat noticed my weird reaction and patted my back. "You're far too young to have a son in law."

"You're telling me. Thank you. I had Max before I was thirty." I shook my head. "Eric was very young when he, well, had a relationship with his daughter's mom. He didn't know about her until she was eighteen."

"It's nice that you have this big, quirky family. I just have my mom, and, well, it's clear how awesome that is."

It was funny that I had a big family, because Eric and I had really had no one besides our siblings when we met. "Yea, we're a bit of a weird group, but it is really nice. For two people with one sibling apiece, we seem to have a lot of people in our lives."

"You're both great. I think you attract them."

I snorted. "I think you give us a bit too much credit. We've both pretty difficult in our own ways."

"I think everyone is. Eric's very smart. I've read almost everything he's written. Even his textbook, but that was for a paid review a few months ago."

I smiled. That's why her name had sounded familiar. "I knew I knew your name from somewhere. You did a very detailed review."

"Well, I'm not far enough into my career to be so lazy," she giggled. "And I probably will want to write a book someday."

"Well, I hope you'll knock on the door up there and ask me about it first," I nodded to the doorway up to our house. "Eric thinks you have a lot of potential and that means a lot to me. He's a pretty good judge of character." I thought of Russell. "Most of the time."

**Bones – A few days earlier.**

Fuck, she was gorgeous. No woman ever made me tongue tied, but I'd managed to trip all over my words seven or eight times over two lattes.

She reached inside the lid of her Starbucks cup and wiped the frothy milk away, before putting it in her mouth with her finger. I was uncomfortably hard. She smiled innocently. "I wrote a review for the new edition of Eric's book a few months ago. It was a great update."

"Too bad he's such a pompous ass," I said before realizing that that was probably the wrong thing to say, since they were colleagues. He was probably shagging her, for all I knew. Fucking Northman. I still thought Sookie deserved better.

She shot me a look. "He's been very good to me. I have a lot of respect for his research."

Yep, she was probably shagging her. "Well, it's probably solid. His book has made us a blooming fortune. Tell me about your research, Catherine."

"It's Cat." She smiled. "Well, my research focuses on criminal psychology. I do a lot of work with victims and perpetrators of sex crimes, which is where my research overlaps with Eric's. I'd like to do a criminal psychology, or perhaps an abnormal book someday, although the abnormal book would be quite ambitious."

"You're not ambitious?"

She shrugged, a gleam in her eye I hadn't seen up to that point. "I'm very ambitious, but I also know not to bite off more than I can chew."

I practically growled at the veiled innuendo in her words. "But sometimes it's fun to try."

"Ask me about that book in a few years. I could do the crim one now, but Eric didn't think I should until I have tenure, and I kind of agree with him."

Fucking Northman. "Well, he doesn't necessarily know what's right."

She laughed. "Well, he's going to be chair of my department in the next few months, and he'll have sway over hiring decisions, so he kind of does."

"Well, when you decide you want to give it a shot, I hope you'll look me up."

She inclined her head towards me. "Maybe I will. How long have you been in America?"

"Since September."

She glanced at my hand. "No family?"

I shook my head. "Nope. Just me."

She looked up at the clock. "Well, I think I've avoided rush hour. I guess I'll see you around. I'll email you if I'm ever ready to write something."

Fuck, she was gorgeous. "Or you could just send me an email sometime." I winked, pleased with the blush it caused to spread across her cheeks. I wondered how her pale skin would look flushed, writhing on top of mine. Fucking perfection, that's what that would be.

She stood up, a smile on her face. "Or I could email you sometime. Or you could email me."

"I don't have your address."

She gave me a little shrug, which suggested that she wanted to be in touch. "That's no excuse. It's on the NYU website."

As I watched her walk out the coffee shop door, I froze, unsure of what I was feeling in my chest. It was tight in a way, and I was unsure what that meant. But I wanted her, desperately. I wanted to possess her in every way, and have her possess me as well. She was fucking perfect. A smart, incredibly smart, hot, piece of ass. And she didn't seem too crazy, or like a mad slut. Exactly what I was looking for.

I started home, but as I sat in front of my apartment building, I changed my mind. I wanted her. And I wasn't willing to wait until our schedules would allow another coffee meeting, or until she was ready to write something. Who knew when that would be?

I made my way to the office, determined to figure out where she lived. I rooted through a whole fining cabinet, until I found what I was looking for, and then cheered to myself, relieved that everyone had gone home for the day, because I knew our files weren't to be used for these purposes. Sookie would not have approved. But I had it. The mailing address that we'd sent payment for the review she'd done to. Brooklyn. Thank God I had GPS.

It was nearly eight when I finally pulled up to a rather ramshackle house in a shady part of town. I made sure to lock my car, before confidently striding up to the front door and knocking.

She answered, wearing a pair of oh, so tight jeans and a fitted blue sweater that made her hair look incredible. I'd never shagged a redhead before. I couldn't help but wonder if the drapes matched the carpet. I suppose that was something that most men would be curious about.

She peeked through the window beside the door, before opening it a crack, the chain in place. "Well, hello."

"Catherine Crawfield."

"Crispin Arthur Russell the Third," she giggled.

"Lovely evening." I glanced around. I was freezing my ass off. "Want to let me in then, perhaps have a chat."

"How did you find me, Crispin?" She said opening the door slightly and leaning in the doorway.

I raised my eyebrows. "Oh, I have my ways."

"Are you a stalker?" she asked, her face both playful and curious at the same time. "Because I think I know a bit too much about you for that, since you work with my colleague's wife."

"No Kitten, I'm just a fool for a beautiful woman. What do you say, want to invite me in?"

She shook her head, and snorted. "Kitten? Don't call me that. Oh, no. I really don't want to invite you in."

Maybe I'd been mistaken. But I didn't think so. "Why not?"

"Because I don't know you, beyond having shared a couple of lattes earlier today. Isn't that reason enough?"

"No," I replied bluntly.

"My mother hates the British. My Dad was British," she whispered, a huge smile on her face. "Go. I'll call you later." She reached in her pocket. "I have your card, after all."

That wasn't good enough. I hadn't come here to talk to her on the phone later. "Come with me," I said, glancing over her, to see a bitter looking brunette peering out the front window. "I want to buy you dinner."

"I shouldn't, and I already ate." She turned back, and saw her mum, and groaned. "Oh, what the hell. Let me get my coat."

She came back a few minutes later, and hopped into the front seat of my Mitsubishi Outlander. I hated the thing, but it was what came with the position, and since it was only a year old, I wasn't in much of a position to complain about it. She gave me a devilish look. "What now?"

"Well, you've already eaten, so I guess we can skip that formality." I raised my eyebrows.

She wasn't impressed, as indicated by her crossed arms over that lovely chest of hers. "I could have dessert, or a drink or something. I don't know where you get off, being so forward. We only met this morning. I'm not that kind of girl."

"You're the one that got into my car just now."

Cat raised an eyebrow. "I would have gotten in a car with Stalin if it got me away from my mother."

I looked at her, before breaking out in laughter. "What's so bad about her, Luv?"

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. "I don't have enough time to explain. Next time you faux kidnap me, I'll invite you in to meet her."

"I can kidnap you another time?" I looked at her and bit my lip.

She practically purred. "Well, we'll have to see how this round of captivity goes. I might run next time."

"I'd catch you. I'd find you wherever you went."

She smiled, before cracking up. "You know, if you weren't so charming, I'd probably be scared. I think it's the accent."

"That goes much further here than it does in the motherland."

"I bet it does. You've probably got a professor at every school on the eastern seaboard."

I'd shagged my fair share of professors, but not recently. Things got muddled when you had to work with people, and maintain some sort of professionalism, when all you wanted them to do was blow you. And then there was Annette. She had made shagging anyone hard, for a long time, with her batshit crazy behaviour. "Nah. I don't spend as much time with professors since I got the job here. In fact, the day I spent at NYU was my first on campus in nearly a year."

"I should be honoured then, that you chose me to break your one year academic fucking vacation?" She winked.

"You should be honoured because I like you enough to buy you dinner. The coffee was purchased with my expense account. I won't expense our dessert. Well, your dessert. I'm famished. I need a steak."

"How dreamy," she giggled. "And then what?"

"That, Kitten is up to you."

She looked at me thoughtfully. "Let's have dinner, and then we'll talk.

I listened intently, as she told me a bit about herself that she hadn't gotten into over our rather professional coffee earlier. We had some drinks. Eventually the conversation shifted to the two people we mutually knew.

Cat shrugged. "I think they're great together."

"Why?"

"Sookie's totally hot, and I heard that she slipped Eric's old boss nudy pictures of them when he tried to pin a mistress on him in Paris. That's a ballsy chick."

I shrugged. "I know. Sookie's great. It's him."

She shook her head. "I think you're wrong about him. He'd kill for her. Like I think he'd literally kill. You should have seen his office when I took it over in the fall. I found all these little bits of notes she'd written him, and he gets this little smile on his face when he gets to leave at the end of the day, like it's prison being away from them. Like he's busted out. He's got like eight pictures of her and the kids in his office, in all these weird little spots. And he's a really hands on dad. He's a hard ass at work, sure, but they're lovely together. Witty, and honest. It was refreshing. I don't think I've ever known a couple like them."

"I don't see it, but each to his own." I tipped back my Guinness. "So you missed last train, and I'm too drunk to drive you. I guess you'll have to be my captive a bit longer."

She looked at me, and it was apparent that she was hammered. "Maybe I will?"

We stumbled home, after I sent myself an email reminding myself where my car was. We made up two flights of stairs before I stuck my tongue down her throat. She didn't react badly, pushing hers back down mine, as we tried to move forward up the stairs. When we made it to three, I managed to pull my keys out of my pocket, and we both collapsed on the couch, and she pulled back slightly, when I pulled her onto my lap.

"I'm not sleeping with you," she slurred, slightly, before running her hands over my chest.

I kissed her again, before carrying her to my bed and tucking her in. "Not tonight. But you will. I'm a patient man, Kitten."

She glared at me, as I stripped off my suit and climbed in next to her. "I said, I'm not."

"Go to sleep. You're going to be hurting in the morning after those drinks. I hope you don't have an early class."

"I'm not teaching tomorrow," she whispered. "I'm going to go sleep on the couch."

"Do what you please, Luv." I couldn't resist. I kissed her again. "Goodnight."

She didn't move.

My alarm woke me up at the regular time, six, and I practically hurled it across the room. She was gone. I hadn't even heard her leave.

"Watch it." She growled, from the floor.

"What are you doing down there?"

"I told you I wasn't sleeping with you, but the couch was too far," she groaned.

I peered over the edge of the bed at her. She was a hot mess, her hair everywhere, clutching the extra pillow my from my bed. "No wonder I got some of the blankets back. I'm not going to work. Don't you dare tell Northman I was hungover. Sookie would have my hide."

"You don't tell Sookie I slept over. Eric wouldn't approve, and I want that full-time tenure track job."

I called in sick, and then looked at her, and shook my head. "You may as well get back in bed. We'll sleep it off together."

She stood up, and I tossed her a bottle of water. I always kept one near bed, from my former whoring days. Sometimes you just needed a drink, and were too spent to get out of bed for it. I moved over, as she crawled in. "Just sleeping."

"For now, Luv. For now."

It was nearly four in the afternoon when I woke up to her in my robe straddling my lap, her hair wet from a shower. I looked up at her, curiously surprised. "I won't be able to sleep with you sitting on me like that. I can't believe you got the drop on me. I'm usually much faster."

Her lips curled up into a smile. "Shut up, and fuck me."


	24. I Don't Wanna Fall in Love

**Wow...two story updates in two days? You'd think Fanfiction broke and gave me some time to write! Anyway, I hope you like, and thanks for all the love!**

* * *

**Bones**

I pulled myself up, and pressed my lips against hers, not questioning this turn of events. If a beautiful woman wanted to make love to me, I would never argue that,despite the fact that she was a bit of a prude even when she was drunk. I couldn't believe she'd slept on the floor.

Behind her confidence though was a sort of nervousness in a sense, a bit of hesitation, even though her body was all over mine, and her hands in my hair. It was odd. "What's wrong, Luv?" I whispered in her ear, before running my mouth along her neck, eliciting a shiver.

"Nothing," she almost snapped. "I'm fine. Keep going."

"I'm not a whore, Kitten. I have feelings too." I chuckled, as she slid her hand down my shorts. "And I feel right now, that I like that."

She grinned, wrapping her fingers around my cock. "I can tell."

I closed my eyes, focusing on the way her hand felt on my cock. Bliss.

And all of a sudden it was gone, and the weight on my lap as well. I opened my eyes, and she was gone. "Kitten?"

I was met by a most unpleasant serenade from the bathroom. Had she drank that much? No wonder she'd been nervous. I grabbed a pair of pyjama pants, and leaned against the bathroom doorframe. "You alright?"

She looked up at me, and she was most certainly not alright. "Yea, I'm just hungover."

"Still?"

She glared at me. "I'm a bit of a lightweight. Cut me some slack."

And then it hit me. A huge wave of nausea. "Move. Now."

She looked at me, confused, as I shoved her aside, and emptied the contents of my stomach into the toilet as well.

"And I'm the lightweight?" She chuckled, rinsing out her mouth at the sink. "How many drinks did you have last night?"

"Only four. I shouldn't be sick from four." I wiped my mouth with a bit of toilet paper. "Bloody hell."

It was apparent, a couple of hours later, that being hungover had nothing to do with how we were feeling, as the worst flu I'd possibly ever had in life set in. We fought tooth and nail for dominance over the toilet, as our eyes became more and more bloodshot, and our skin became paler and paler.

After what seemed like a day in the bathroom, I finally crawled into bed. Cat stood in the doorway, looking at me, and I thought to myself that she looked like death warmed over, her almost luminescent skin a ghastly shade of grey. "I should go home."

I shrugged. "Or we could be in this together." I patted the bed. "Hop in."

I wasn't generally the caretaking type, but I wasn't sure I wouldn't need a hand getting to the bathroom later. She lingered for a moment, apprehensive. "I don't know if that's a good idea."

"Hey, you propositioned me, and I plan on collecting on that, as soon as we're both capable. The only way I can ensure that is if you stay put, so get in bed. I won't bite, at least not while I'm incapacitated."

She pulled my robe tight around her, and did as I requested, crawling in beside me. "Fine. But I'm only staying because I don't want to infect my mother, or even know if she's infected herself. There's no way in hell I'm taking care of her when I feel like this."

I rolled on my side and looked at her. Even looking like a corpse, she was still lovely, and if anything, sickness made her skin more ethereal. "Are you going to call her?"

She groaned. "Yea. When I can move again to get my phone."

We both rolled around a bit, trying to sleep it off, before finally coming to terms with the fact that we were too ill to sleep. "I can't believe you gave me the flu, Kitten. I thought we were getting along so well."

"I think you gave me the flu."

I snorted. "You're the one that's surrounded with teenagers all day."

"I didn't give you an STI. It's not like they carry the flu."

"They carry lots of things. Why were you tense earlier?"

Her eyes flew open, and then she started justifying. "I was fine. And then I was sick. That was why."

I shook my head. "I don't think so. And why did you want to shag me, when you didn't so much as want to sleep in a king sized bed with me the night before?"

She swallowed. "You're really over thinking a flinch."

"You flinched?" I hadn't noticed her flinch.

She blushed. "Wasn't that what you meant?"

"No. It wasn't anything specific. You just seemed uncomfortable, but like you were trying really hard not to be. Does that make sense? I'm feverish." I reached over and grabbed some more water. Even a sip made me feel ill.

She rolled onto her back, and put her arm over her eyes. "I don't like sex."

"You. Don't. Like. Sex." I enunciated each word, just to make sure I'd heard properly. "I'm sorry, Luv, but you're not making any sense."

"Yea, well, I don't make a lot of sense sometimes," she mumbled.

"Let's forget the obvious question here for a minute. Why did you want to have sex with me, if you don't like sex?"

She rolled away from me. "Leave me alone, Crispin."

"You've seen my head in the toilet, Luv. It's Bones. Call me Bones. And I won't leave you alone. We're stuck here, together, so you might as well spill. You've got me curious now, and I'm relentless."

"You're sex personified. I was curious."

"So you thought I might make you like sex, so you could what all the fuss was about? Is that it?" I chuckled, and rolled her over, so she was facing me. "Wow, I don't know if I should be insulted that you were planning on using me, or honoured that you thought enough of my sexibilities to give me a ride."

"You're so crude."

"I could say the same about you, hopping on top of me while I was asleep. Now, why don't you like sex?" I thought about how the two of us would have looked to anyone that saw us, lying here in bed, looking like death. It would have been amusing, likely.

"I don't know. I just don't enjoy it. There's something wrong with me."

The hurt and sadness in her bloodshot eyes was quite moving, in an odd way. "I doubt there's anything wrong with you. More likely there's something wrong with your selection of sex partners."

"Partner," she said, so quietly I barely heard her.

"How old are you, Luv?"

"Thirty-one next month."

"Are you divorced?"

She shook her head. "Nope."

"Long term boyfriend?"

She shook her head again. "I was like eighteen. Now, after the research I've done, I'd probably call it date rape, but I wanted to make him happy at the time. I don't know. I just got really into my schoolwork and never had the time for much else. It didn't seem worth pursuing, and honestly, after spending time with rapists and rape victims, I don't usually feel sexy."

She hadn't had sex in over ten years? "But you're such a flirt, and you're gorgeous."

She laughed weakly. "I'm not really. I don't know what got into me with you."

My eyes met hers, and we didn't say anything for ages, hours possibly.

Sometime later we woke, and I realized that I needed to get my car before it was towed. I rolled out of bed, and tried to stop the room from spinning, by steadying myself against the wall.

"Bones?" Cat croaked, concern in her voice. "Where are you going?"

"To retrieve my car, Luv. I'll be back. Want anything while I'm out? A Big Mac, perhaps?"

She turned a terrible shade of green. "Maybe some broth? I guess we should eat something. Are you going to work tomorrow?

I shook my head. "I don't believe. I'll call in in the morning. How about you?"

She shook her head. "I don't even think I can get out of bed."

I returned about an hour later, and it looked like she hadn't moved. "Luv, you should drink something."

She nodded weakly at the water bottle beside the bed. "I did, and then I threw up."

And we went on like that for another two days, trying to eat a bit here and there, quite unsuccessfully, and laying in bed together, usually quietly.

It was the most intimate thing I'd ever done with anyone.

And then I woke up Friday evening, and she was gone.

**Two Weeks Later...Well, two weeks, and twelve hours later. **

**Sookie**

"Eric, please be careful."

Max rolled his eyes at his sad, sad mother. "Mom, we're not even going ice fishing because of the thaw. We'll be fine."

"Listen to your Dad, and call me." I kissed his forehead.

Eric gave me a knowing grin. "Lover, there's no cell signal up there. We'll call when we're heading home. It's only one night. Two days. I'll call if we need to."

I don't know why I was being so funny about them going. It wasn't as though I hadn't been apart from them before. I guess it was probably more that going fishing was such a man thing to do, and I wasn't ready for Max to be a grown-up. "Okay. Have fun." I hugged him again. "And stay off the ice."

"We will, Sookie," Eric kissed my forehead. "And we'll bring you back some fish."

I wrinkled up my nose. Fish was a lot of work to prepare. "Can you bring me back some honey instead, from that place we like?" There was this place upstate that made the most amazing honey.

"Fine. Honey it is."

After a round of Ce snuggles, they were out the door, and I was left to have a girls weekend with the tiniest Northman. "What do you want to do, Ce?"

"Go shopping," she said, like it was the obvious answer.

A couple of hours later, we headed out into the unseasonably warm March afternoon, and headed downtown. I wanted a new spring jacket of some sort, and Ce needed some new shoes. Well, she wanted new shoes. Red ones. With bows. She was very specific.

I was a little bit afraid of what might happen if we didn't find them. She was a lot like Aunt Pam at times.

Despite her tiny fits, I loved Ce at this age. She was just starting to come into herself as a little person, and I was very pleased with how she was turning out. She was very polite, almost chatty to a fault with strangers, who couldn't not pay attention to her because she was so darn cute. We were at the Gap on Fifth Ave. when I looked up and saw Appius's wife heading towards us.

I knew her a little through Pam and the Hamptons crazy lady circle that I avoided at all costs, but still sometimes got swept into. I stood in place, a stupid smile on my face, and my hand wrapped tightly around Ce's, when it was evident that she was heading straight for me. "Belinda. How are you?"

Belinda was not an attractive woman, and it has nothing to do with appearance. She had this sour, bitter look about her, which didn't get any better as she aged. Ce tugged at my arm, obviously sharing my disdain for the woman that was quickly approaching us. "Let's go Mom. I want to find my shoes."

Her eyes grew dark and her nostrils flared, as she crossed her arms over her chest. She was the epitome of a socialite bitch, in an overpriced cashmere sweatsuit and a huge Chanel bag. "How do you think I am, Sookie Northman? Your husband is attempting to ruin us."

So much for friendly formalities. I scooped Ce up. "My husband didn't need to attempt anything. Yours did quite fine on his own, and if I recall correctly, he's the one that started this by shipping mine off to Paris against his will."

"We are getting kicked out of the East Hamptons Country Club," she hissed. "This is unacceptable."

I looked at her, deadpan, before fixing Ce's little hat. "I don't even know what that is. You're disrupting my afternoon with my daughter."

"I'm getting red shoes," Ce exclaimed, her nose a bit up in the air. "And a cookie from Starbucks."

I hadn't agreed to that. Oh well. I'd want a cookie after this too. "We'll be on our way."

She didn't move, even though I could have broken her. Ce probably could have done some serious damage. She was tiny. "Have your husband drop the lawsuit."

"No."

"This will not stand."

I controlled myself from laughing, but snorted a little. "What does that even mean? I don't even know the context of what you're saying. It won't stand that your husband made his own bed like a grown-up? Because I think that will stand. Have a lovely afternoon, Belinda."

And with that, we shuffled past her, to freedom.

We found Ce's red shoes at Target, which was awesome because they were like seven bucks, and it meant that Pam hadn't yet affected her with her brand whoring. After we got home, and did dinner and bathtime, and stories, I found myself kind of lonely, so I did something that I might have considered a bit intrusive if I hadn't had a glass of wine.

I knocked on the basement door.

Cat answered a few minutes later, in a pair of oversized sweats and glasses, her hair thrown up in a messy bun. "Oh, hey. Is everything okay, Sookie?"

I nodded, a little embarrassed. "Sorry, I was just having some wine, and Eric's gone, and I thought I'd see if you wanted a glass. Because I don't want it to go bad, and I shouldn't drink the whole bottle."

Lies. I had an air pump thingie to keep it fresh.

"Uh, sure. I was just working on marking some essays. Let me just blow out my candles."

It did smell nice down there. "I hope its not too musty down there."

She walked upstairs, and closed the door behind her. "Sookie, it's awesome, and it smells like independence. Seriously, I owe you guys big time."

"How's everything else? Is your mom adjusting?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yea, she's fine. We had dinner last night. I got an 'I miss you', and be careful lecture, which was kind of ridiculous at my age, but other than that, we were good. Where's Eric?"

"Fishing with Max. He promised him a fishing trip while he was in Paris. I ran into Appius' wife earlier with Ce. She was a total bitch."

Cat giggled. "She looks so sour. I met her at an NYU psychology luncheon."

"One of their country club memberships is getting revoked. Did you know that people pay like a half a million bucks a year to belong to some of the Hamptons clubs?" I'd done some googling when I got home. I was a small-town Louisiana girl. That was absurd.

She snorted. "Hey, I can hardly afford to pay New York rent. Hopefully his salary will get distributed if he's making enough to afford that."

"She's old money. I doubt he's making anywhere near that." Professor salaries were usually far less than the public thought. "But, yea. It would be good to get him out for that, and for so many other reasons."

We sat there, smiling at one another for a minute. "Sookie, can I ask you something personal?"

After a couple of glasses of wine, I loved talking personal. "Sure."

She tucked her legs in under her on the couch. "How did you decide to start dating Eric, even though you knew it wasn't quite kosher, with you working on his book?"

I smiled, like I always did when I talked about when we met. I was such a suck. "He was relentless, and it finally got to the point where I could think of nothing else. I crossed a lot of professional boundaries with him in the beginning, that I probably wouldn't have done now, but with he and I, at times it was like neither of us had a choice in the matter. We have some intense chemistry."

Cat looked up, considering carefully the next question that she was going to ask. "Because he, well, knows a lot about sex, was it, well, intimidating, being with him at first?"

And this was where my loose lips always got me in trouble after a couple of glasses of wine. "We just fooled around for months. You've seen him, well, not naked, I hope anyway, and I was a bit nervous at first, and I was also afraid that he was going to fuck and chuck me, and then we were going to have to work together for ages on his book, so I pulled the everything but card. I got hurt pretty badly in my previous relationship, and I was hell bent not to have that happen again. Was that too much information?"

She shook her head. "Well, the size thing was, but the rest was useful. I met someone, but I'm afraid he's going to chew me up and spit me out."

"You know, Cat, I think that our behaviour determines how others treat us. And I don't think you behave like a slut. So you'll be fine." I patted her on the back. "So, who is he? Another professor?"

She looked like the cat the swallowed the canary. "He's no one. I think I managed to ensure that he'd never call me again. I was just curious for next time."

"Is he intimidated because you're a sexpert?" I grinned at her. "I'd never thought of a female sexpert having that problem."

She snorted. "I may specialize in an area that relates to sex, but I assure you, I'm no expert."

I laughed. "Well, I mean, I guess when you've been doing it for as long as you and I have, almost everyone is an expert. I know it can feel like you're out of practice though. I nearly died when Eric was away last fall."

She shook her head. "I'm actually pretty fail at sex."

I snorted. "It's tab one into slot two, and repeat. How can you be fail at that?"

Cat shrugged. "You'd be surprised. I guess my research has the opposite effect on me that Eric's does on him. I'm rarely in the mood, after spending time at prisons, or shelters. Sex can be good, sure, but it also creates a hell of a lot of bad."

I preferred never to think about that. "I guess so. But you can't throw the baby out with the bath water. It can be a really incredible way to connect with someone."

Cat smiled. "You're lucky to have had that experience."

I nodded. "I know."

At about two in the morning, I woke up to a phone call from Bill. I fumbled with my phone. "Sook, do you have power?"

I looked around the room, which was in complete darkness, save for a tiny crack from the window. My alarm clock was off. "No."

"Shit. Us either. Selah is freaking out because we just bought half a cow for the deep freeze. Organic meat. It cost a fortune."

I groaned and sat up. "Why is the power out?"

"You didn't hear? Huge storm. It's dumping record amounts of rain for this time of year, and winds are gusting at well over a hundred miles an hour. It's like a spring hurricane. It's been all over the news for days."

It was cool in here, but I usually turned the heat down at night anyway. I hated when the power went out though. It made everything harder with kids "I wasn't paying attention to the weather."

"Shit, I don't know what to do."

"Bill, I can't help you with your meat." I wished Eric was there, because he would have pissed himself at my slip of the tongue. He never missed things like that. "Sorry."

He sighed. Bill was cheap. He hated losing money, and we fed the kids organic too, and it was bloody expensive. I had no idea how much a half cow cost. "Well thank you anyway, and sorry to wake you."

And then I remembered something. "Wait. Pam's condo has a generator, and a deep freeze." Pam hardly ever ate at home, so it doubted it would be in use.

He perked up. "Really? And she wouldn't mind?"

I figured it would be better to take Ce there anyway, since it was likely to be cold if the power didn't come back on, and it would be nice to wake up and be able to cook something. "Come pick us up. We'll go stay over there. She's in the Bahamas."

"I'll be there in an hour. Thank you, Sookie. We were on a waiting list for that bloody cow. I'll bring you some steaks."

"No problem. See you in a bit, Bill."

I pulled myself up out of bed, packed an overnight bag, and left a voice mail for Eric letting him know where we were in case he beat us home. I peered out the bedroom window, and it was indeed pissing blowing rain out.

Ce was grumbly when I woke her up, but was quite excited about going to Pam's. I grabbed Lily and was almost out the door when I remembered Cat. I scratched out a note letting her know we were gone, and stuffed it under the door.

**Cat**

It was early, maybe around seven in the morning when I heard a knock on the outside door. I pulled on my robe and peered out the peephole.

Bones.

How the hell had he found me?

"Go away," I said, trying my best to sound exasperated, but really wishing I hadn't been so freaked out by how attached I'd gotten to him a few weeks ago after our little self-imposed quarantine session.

He shouted above the wind. "It's bloody pissing out. Let me in. I just want to talk."

I opened the door a crack. "How the hell did you find me?"

"I work with your landlord, remember? She mentioned she had a new tenant and it wasn't hard to put the pieces together, especially after I went by your home in Brooklyn and your mother told me off. She's a horrible bitch, she is. No wonder you weren't eager to get back to her." He inclined his head towards me. "I thought you liked me."

I sighed, and opened the door fully, and made a mental note to call my mother. I did like him. Fuck, he was gorgeous. The kind of gorgeous that was distracting. "It's like seven in the morning."

He shook his head. "It's half ten."

I stared at him, confused. "But I set my alarm."

"Power's been out since midnight. I brought croissants, but no coffee, well, for obvious reasons, and I have the feeling you're a bit high strung anyway." He held up a paper bag. "I've debated coming here since I found out you were living here on Friday, but I have my pride."

"So why did you come?"

He sighed, and locked eyes with me. "Because I couldn't stop thinking about you. You're like crack, Kitten. Gorgeous crack. You're looking healthier than the last time I saw you, before you left without so much as a goodbye."

I blushed, embarrassed. I'd kind of freaked out. "Yea, I don't like awkward goodbyes."

He moved closer to me, invading my personal space. I found myself not bothered like I usually was. "I might have let you leave, but I wasn't saying goodbye. I like you, Cat, and I'd like to get to know you better. But no running. I told you, I'd find you."

I sighed at his words. "You're like a creepy stalker."

He shook his head. "No. I've never been sick with someone before, like that. It was horrible, and wonderful all at the same time. You know there's something there."

His hand brushed mine, and my breathing hitched. "I don't know that."

"Give me a shot," he whispered, "and I don't just mean today. You won't regret it."

I closed the door behind him, and took a step back, quite unable to resist the handsome Englishman in my living room, looking like he belonged there. "I told you, I don't have a lot of experience with men."

He nodded. "I know. And I'm okay with that."

I thought back to the afternoon before I'd gotten sick, the way his hands felt on me, the way my body had reacted to his touch, the way his firm body had felt against me. "Show me what you would have done if I hadn't got sick," I whispered, taking his hand and showing him the way to my room, leaving the croissants on the kitchen table. I had the feeling that if Bones had his way, we'd need to refuel later.

His voice was low and gravely, and sent an amazing shiver down my spine."With pleasure."


	25. 1 2 3 4

**And the next chapter is up! If you like Cat and Bones, I hope you'll consider picking up the Night Huntress books! There are some great stories in that fandom as well!**

**Thanks for reading, and letting me know what you think!**

**If you're an author interested in looking at a FF reader survey that a few of us are putting together, drop me a PM.**

* * *

**Eric**

After a great day and night at a incredibly rustic cabin in Vermont, I realized a couple of things. Max snored, and I hated rustic. But we had fun. It was good man time. We caught a couple of fish, but threw them back because both of us were total softies.

It wasn't until we'd driven about an hour that I finally had cell signal and got Sookie's sleepy, garbled message that she was going to take Ce and go to Pam's. It wasn't until I managed to get a clear radio station a few minutes that it made sense.

I'd been checking the weather for Vermont for the last week, but hadn't bothered with the local weather. The storm in New York sounded awful, rain overnight turning to snow early in the morning. I tried not to be outwardly concerned, for Max's sake, but I pulled over to call Sookie right away. She answered after a couple of rings.

"Are you okay?" I said, not even waiting for her to answer.

She laughed. "We're fine. We're having pancakes for dinner at the Herveaux residence. I've been checking the weather feverishly to make sure you guys weren't stuck in the middle of nowhere in a flood. The basement's fine, by the way. I checked in earlier, but we still don't have power, but it's hovering around freezing so the pipes should be fine. Come over to Pam's. It's like being on vacation."

I chuckled, realizing that it was silly for me to be worried. She more than knew how to take care of herself. "We'll get Max's school stuff and some clothes and head over. Is the cook working?"

"Yes. I called Pam to see if it was okay if we stayed here, and she called him in. I told her it wasn't necessary, but she did it anyway. He makes the most delicious bread. I could get used to this."

"Not on our salaries, at least not if we want to put two kids through college."

"Pfft. College is overrated," she laughed, "said the textbook seller to the professor."

"Exactly. We'll be there in a few hours. I'm almost at your honey spot, so I gotta go." I snickered when I realized how dirty that sounded.

"You're on speaker phone, yea?" She asked, her voice playful.

"Yes."

Her voice was playful. "Okay then. Enjoy the honey place, and I'll see you two in a bit."

Max grinned at the phone. "Bye Mom."

I set it up on the dash, and smiled over at my boy. "We should do this every year."

He nodded, his smile stretching from ear to ear. "Can we?"

"Sure. Maybe we'll try and actually catch the ice next year."

The drive home was fine, until we were about a half hour outside the city, and the pelting snow started. Max was chattering away, and finally, it got so bad that I couldn't focus, and asked him to be quiet, which seemed to really scare him.

"Are we going to be okay? He whispered, after ten minutes or so of silence.

"Yes, we'll be fine. I just need to pay attention." The wipers weren't quite cleaning things properly. I hated driving in the snow.

After a drive that took twice as long as it should have, we finally pulled up in front of our house at about nine. Max had finally fallen asleep in the backseat, and my back and neck were killing me from being so tense from the shitty driving conditions. I leaned back and poked Max.

"We're home, buddy. Let's get some clothes and go to Pam's."

Max sat up and wiped his eyes. "I'm hungry. What time is it?"

"Late. We'll get you some dinner at Pam's. I'm sorry we didn't stop, I just wanted to get home." I was starving too. "Maybe there's a snack inside."

He nodded, and I smiled, looking back at him. He was a good kid, really easy going. I figured that came from Sookie's side of the family. He had a personality a bit like Jason, only far, far smarter. Not that that took much.

We stomped our way through the inches and inches of slush snow, and made our way up the front steps. The house was dark, really dark, and I smiled as Max grabbed onto the back of my jacket. "I'll get the flashlight."

"Dad, I can hear someone," he whispered.

"It's just Cat probably." I glanced around, automatically feeling anxious in the dark.

"No, not in the basement. Up here, Dad," he tugged at my jacket. "I think in the living room, or maybe the bathroom."

I stopped and listened for a minute, and he was right. I swallowed, and glanced at the door to the basement, which was shut. If I'd been on my own, I might have reacted differently, but with Max behind me, my paternal instinct kicked in. I shoved my phone into his hand. "Go shut yourself in the car and call 911 if I'm not out in ten," I whispered.

"I'm not leaving you."

"Max..."

"No," he huffed, and I then realized that it wasn't any safer sending my seven year old out into the New York evening, then keeping him with me.

"Fine, but stay behind me."

The living room was dimly lit from the streetlight outside, and it became clear that there was indeed someone there, and as soon as I saw the build, I knew it wasn't Cat.

I didn't wait and see who it was.

A half a second later, I was tussling on the floor with whomever had busted into my house, and I had him pinned while I landed a couple of nice shots to the face.

"Get him Dad!" Max shouted supportively, and I tried to ignore him as I made sure he didn't have any weapons.

"Fuck, it's Crispin. Jesus mate, fuck off!" a familiar English accented voice spat.

My mind processed his words slowly, as I sat back on my heels, still pinning him to the ground. "What the fuck are you doing in my house?"

"Trying to fix a bloody busted pipe in _your_ house. Get off me." He wiggled a bit, but I didn't move. "Fuck, you're hurting me."

"Why are you in my house?" Had Sookie asked him to check on the pipes? She would have asked Bill before him, I imagined.

"Christ, your kid even got a kick in," he rubbed his shin. "What the hell is wrong with you people?"

"What the hell was I supposed to think," I said, rubbing my hand, which hurt like a motherfucker. "when you're in my house! Why are you here, and how did you get in?"

"I'm visiting your tenant."

I looked down at him. "Shirtless?" What the hell was Cat thinking?

He looked at me snidely. "That's really none of your business."

I looked at him, deadpan. "You're in my bathroom, shirtless."

And then a woman's voice. "Oh my God."

And a blinding flashlight in my face. "Kitten, everything is fine," Bones groaned out. Kitten? "Eric's fists just thought they should get more familiar with my face."

Cat was wearing a pair of huge sweatpants and a hoodie, and she had sex hair. I knew sex hair well. I tried to process what had happened. They'd met when I introduced Bones to Russell, a month or so ago. Had he been in my basement the whole time? Was my douche-dar broken?

I stood up, and glanced at Max, who was watching the scene wide eyed. So much therapy was going to be needed. 'Well, doctor, my dad beat the tar out of my mom's employee. He kissed her once, so it was okay.'

He had an amused grin on his face, as he handed me my cell. "You should probably call Mom."

I stood back, as Bones got up off the ground. "You two are together? Bones, I don't want you in my house. I was very clear about that."

Cat narrowed her eyes at me, and then turned to him. "You didn't tell me that."

He ignored me completely. "I wasn't exactly concerned with his silly rules. I thought you might have needed me."

Cat looked mortified. "You kissed his wife. Of course he didn't want you here."

Max's eyes went wide, before he hauled off and kicked Bones in the shin. "Stay away from my mom," he shouted, before retreating behind me. I wanted to high five him, but since I'd practically ruined Bones' face, I decided I shouldn't. So. Much. Therapy.

"Christ, I'd like to stay away from the lot of you," he groaned, backing out of the bathroom. "I was simply trying to help you avoid a flood. For Cat's sake. I didn't want her things ruined."

Max and I exchanged a look. "You should probably see a doctor," Max said, his tone a lot like mine, completely insincere. "My dad did a lot of damage to your face."

"I'll be fine," he groaned. "I just need some ice."

"There's lots outside," Max said, a Northman smirk on his face. "Why don't you get out of our house and go get some."

Again, I resisted the urge to high five him. "Max, we should go. Your mom will be wondering where we are. Go grab your things from upstairs." I turned the flashlight on on my cell.

He stomped off, and I was left with Cat and Bones, and I locked eyes with him. "I still don't want you in my house. Not when I'm here."

And then Cat surprised me. "Eric, you're being ridiculous. He's here with me. I should have mentioned it, but it's a new development, him being here. Don't tell me you're going to kick him out of your club house." She crossed her arms. "I thought you were more mature than that."

She'd called me out. I was not immature. I just hated him. "Fine. I don't want to know anything about it. No stopping up for dinner, or so much as walking past our windows."

"He has to walk by the living room windows to get to my door," Cat said, furrowing her brow. I appreciated that she wasn't being overly dramatic about this and threatening to move out, because at that moment, I would have told her to go for it, but then regretted it. "But he'll be discreet, if he's over here." She looked at him. "Right?"

I looked at Bones, who was touching his face, which was starting to darken from my well placed blows. "Yea, Kitten, of course. But after my warm welcome today, I think you'd be better to come to my place."

She looked at me, and then at him. "We'll discuss that later. Eric, are we alright here? I'll pay for a plumber if we need one, but I don't see any leaks. Bones is hardly qualified."

She was good. I felt guilty about hitting him, and I never thought that would have been the case after everything that had gone down in the fall. Damn Cat. "Okay. We'll be at Pam's. You have my cell if you need anything, having to do with the plumber."

She nodded, and gave me a bright smile. "I will. Enjoy your evening."

I packed up a bag, and made sure Max had brought his toothbrush, before heading out. We were halfways to Pam's when Max turned and looked at me. "Dad, why did Bones' kiss Mom? He's not supposed to."

I thought for a minute, trying to figure out the best way to explain infidelity to a seven year old. Not that Sookie had cheated. "You're damn right he's not supposed to. Do you remember the year that you found your Christmas presents in the attic and you peeked, even though you weren't supposed to?"

He nodded.

"Your Mom is like Christmas presents. She's exciting, and awesome, and everyone in their right mind wants Christmas presents."

"But she's got your name on the tag."

I smiled. That was my boy. "That's right."

**Cat**

I looked at Bones' profile. "Shit, your nose is broken."

"Are you certain?I don't think it is."

I shone the flashlight in the mirror. "Well, it's really swollen if it's not. He hit you hard."

I sighed, as the gorgeous man that had inhabited my bed all day took in the damage done to his face. "He got lucky."

I snorted. "No, he pretty much beat the shit out of you. But you kind of deserved it. I wish you'd just let me call the plumber. You're an editor. You don't know anything about plumbing."

We crawled back into bed, after grabbing him an ice pack. Bed was warm, and some interesting things were taking place there today, it seemed. "I could have determined if the crash we heard was a broken pipe."

I smiled. I'd been fairly certain that it was just ice falling off the roof, but Bones had had other ideas. Most of which probably involved getting as far away from the world's most amateur blow job. "Do you want to see a doctor?"

"Pardon me for being crass, but I'd like to continue where we left off." I felt my heart swell as he put his hands on my face and kissed me hard.

"Oh, okay," I whispered, careful to avoid touching his face, which, even the dark looked black and blue. "Are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital?"

He nodded, and the look he gave me in the candlelight made me clench with need. "Positive. It's kind of pathetic though, me looking like this, and I wasn't even being an asshole, or defending a beautiful woman. I was looking for a leak."

"You can tell people you were defending me, if you want." I shivered, as he put his chilly hands up my sweater.

"Except my boss will know that wasn't true, and she's the one I'd likely have to tell," he chuckled, before wincing. "Ouch."

"I really think your nose might be broken."

He shook his head. "I've broken it before. It's just a bit sore. I used to be quite the brawler in my day. I could have kicked Northman's ass if I'd been prepared and it hadn't been dark."

I found myself wanting to feed his ego, not because he was laying in my bed, and he'd taught me the meaning of the word orgasm earlier that day, but because I liked him.

A lot.

I'd liked him for weeks now, probably since that first sort of chance encounter in the hallway with Eric, ironically enough. I was terrible with men though, and I'd let one rotten apple really ruin the bunch when it came to men. I'd found myself wishing over the years that I could have just been a lesbian, but I could hardly stand to be around women, even in a friendly capacity. They were so petty and bitchy. Sookie, in fact, was the first woman I'd envisioned myself being friends with in the better part of ten years.

Men were confusing though. And it was all because of one encounter years ago that, after researching sexual assault for years, probably qualified as date rape. I'd been weak with Danny, and for a long time, I'd told myself I deserved what happened to me, that I'd led him down the garden path and tried to shut the gate too late, but deep down, I knew that wasn't true. I'd said no, not as firmly as I would have now, knowing how things turned out, but the implied no had been there. It absolutely had been.

There was something about Bones though. Something that made me want to feel all the things I'd locked away to keep myself from being hurt or scarred again. I wanted to let him in. I knew he wasn't Danny. He'd given me the space I'd demanded, and he'd never taken advantage. He'd been an impossible flirt, but he'd never force me or convince me of anything I didn't want.

And he was so handsome, even with a split lip. "I think you could have taken him. You're strong, and very flexible."

He chuckled. "You're an odd bird, Catherine Crawfield."

"I like you," I whispered, finding myself temporarily nervous about his response.

He smiled, this genuine, almost shy smile that I doubted many got to see. "I fancy you as well."

**Sookie**

When Eric and Max came off the elevator at Pam's, it was evident immediately that they were up to something, and it wasn't good. I turned my cheek as Eric went to kiss me, and crossed my arms over my chest.

"Spill, boys."

Max sighed. "We got in a fight."

I glanced at Eric. "With each other? Because from the looks of your dad's hand, you won."

Eric shook his head, a tired look on his face. "No, I didn't get in a fight with a seven year old. Max needs some dinner. We'll talk about it then."

I followed them into the kitchen. "I'll put something together for you both. I want to hear about this fight."

Eric sighed. "Well, we thought someone broke into the house."

I gasped. "You didn't attack Cat, did you?"

"No, Mom," Max piped up, gulping down the glass of milk that I put in front of him. "Bones."

I felt a bit sick. Where the hell had they found Bones? I knew Eric had a lot on his mind with work, but there was no way he was still dwelling on what had happened. We'd worked through that. "I think your dad better tell this story, buddy."

"Bones was in our house," he glanced at Max. "Visiting Cat."

"With no shirt on," Max chimed in. "So Dad pushed him to the ground and punched him in the face, and I kicked him, and Mom?"

I blinked, trying to process. "What?"

"Why did you let Bones kiss you? You're Dad's."

"I'm my own. And I didn't let Bones kiss me, and I don't know why you even know that." I glared at Eric. "That's not appropriate father-son bonding talk."

"Cat mentioned it. Bones thought he heard a pipe crack, so he came upstairs to check it out, and I thought someone had broken in, and I had Max with me, so I wasn't taking any chances." He glanced at Max. "He was the one that kicked him for kissing you."

"Max, you shouldn't kick people. Eric, I, well, I don't even know what to say." I was glad they were okay, that it wasn't some meth-head, or some robber, but looking at the swelling on Eric's hand, I was guessing Bones looked pretty bad. "Is he okay?"

Eric shrugged. "He seemed fine."

"Seemed fine?"

And then Eric got a bit agitated. "It was dark, and he wasn't my primary concern. He got up, and went downstairs, and was snide and cocky, so I assumed he was fine."

I thought about calling, but I wasn't even sure Cat's cell was charged, and I figured they would call if they needed us.

And I wasn't Bones' keeper. We were off hours.

Max chowed into his grilled cheese, as I continued eying Eric, who hadn't touched his. "Mom, Dad did really good. He was really strong, and he kept me safe."

I sighed. "I know, Max, but it's not okay to hit people."

My son raised a tiny eyebrow at me. "Even if you think they're going to hurt you?"

Yep, this was confusing for everyone. "Eat up, and then get to bed."

He looked to Eric for support. "But..."

Eric simply shook his head. "But your mother and I will discuss this. We can recap tomorrow if there's anything you need to know."

Max glared at both of us, and it was clear that he was overtired. I ruffled his hair. "No school tomorrow, so sleep in a bit. You look tired."

He hopped off the stool and vanished into the room he usually stayed in here. "Goodnight."

And then I was left to try and figure out what the correct response for Eric's actions was. "I'd feel better about things if I knew Bones' wasn't lying in a heap in our bathroom."

"There's probably blood on the floor, but I'm fairly sure he's positioned in a heap under Cat somewhere. Tell me you didn't know about that."

I shook my head. "Of course I didn't."

"Good."

I looked at him incredulously. "Don't you put this back on me."

"I'm not." He rubbed his hand. "I wouldn't have hit him if I knew who he was, and why he was there."

I raised my eyebrows at him. "I would hope not." I peered into the freezer and handed him a bag of peas. "It's more flexible than a steak. Put it on your hand."

"Thank you," he mumbled. "Cat totally called me out when I was..."

"Adding insult to injury and being an ass to the man you'd just beat up for trying to help us?"

"Yea."

"Eric, I don't know what to say." I'd spent all day worrying about him and Max driving home, and I knew why he'd done what he did, even if I was irritated with him. "Let's just go to bed."

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Sookie."

"Look, I know how I should feel, and how I do feel, and this has been kind of stressful day, so let's talk about it tomorrow."

"Why don't you tell me how you feel?"

"Because you'll think I'm sympathizing with Bones, and I'm not. I'm upset our son had to see that, and I'm upset that he and I had sorted through our issues and our working relationship was back on track, and now you've jeopardized that. But I know why you did what you did. So I don't know how I feel. I guess I'm tired."

He tightened his jaw. "Okay, we'll go to bed."

As I stripped down, and crawled into bed, it was clear that he had something he wanted to say. "Go ahead, just say it," I whispered, rolling over to face him.

"I really wouldn't have hit him. I hope you know that."

I gave him a weak smile. "I know that, but you still hurt him, and I'm going to have to deal with that."

He sighed. "Hey, I'm now officially Cat's boss, and I beat up her boyfriend. How's that going to look?"

"You're not her boss until next week." I smiled. Eric became acting department chair effective at the first of the month. "And by then, I'm sure she'll be over it."

"I don't care if she's over it. It won't change our professional career. However, if I see too much of Bones' ugly mug around my property, it may change her living arrangements."

I rolled my eyes. We weren't kicking Cat out over this, and it did sound like Bones had really been trying to help. "Oh, Bill left you some steaks in the freezer. He said they're really good."

He wrinkled up his nose. "Did Bill stop by to use Pam's power?"

"That was how I ended up here." I smirked. "He asked for help keeping his meat fresh, and I couldn't refuse him."

Eric looked at me for a second before bursting out laughing. "I wish I'd been here for that. I would have given him hell for using my wife and sister to keep his meat from thawing. I'm sure his wife could have helped him with that."

"Oh, I'd never miss the opportunity to have Bill owe you a favour. I'm sure sharing your sister's ice box goes a long way."

Eric mock gagged. "I think I just threw up in my mouth a little. Good work, Lover."

I snuggled into his arm. "I learned from the master."


	26. Sorrow

**And I'm back? Sort of? I hate leaving things unfinished, so I'm going to aim to finish this up over the next few weeks. I'm really sorry for the delay; life got really busy, and I got caught up in writing original stuff, which is kind of exciting. Anyway, here you go! There's about 4 chapters to go after this, which aren't written, but that are being mapped out in my brain right now!**

**Thanks for all your review love, and for your concern. I'm really fine. I post on my blog from time to time if you're looking for me as well!**

* * *

**Eric**

The power came back on around ten the next morning, and we bundled up the kids and were home by lunch. Sookie was being unusually quiet, and when we finally got the kids settled, doing their various things, and I made sure none of the pipes cracked, I pulled her into our room and shut the door.

"What is it?" I asked, pulling her down on the bed. I knew her well enough to know when things were weird. She wasn't looking at me.

But that changed quite quickly, as she locked eyes with me. "You could have put Max in danger. Why the hell didn't you call the cops and go outside?"

I'd noticed her tossing and turning at Pam's but I'd chalked it up to her not sleeping well in a strange bed. "I didn't think about it, I guess."

She crossed her arms, and looked at me coldly. "You're a father, Eric. It's part of the package, this thinking thing. You could have both been hurt. You didn't know it was just Bones. You knew we weren't there. There was no reason for you to go in there."

I put my hands on my hips and looked at her hard. "You knew he was here, didn't you?"

"Of course I didn't."

"Really? You mean to tell me that he's been staying here for God knows how long and you knew nothing about it?"

"No, I didn't. It's not as though Bones and I have been as close as we were a while ago."

"When I wasn't here."

"You're really going to go there, over this." She looked at me deadpan. "Jesus, Eric."

It was one of those times in life where I probably should have just shut up. Apologized, even. But I didn't. In fact, I did quite the opposite. "It's nice, everyone keeping me in the dark on the little love nest in my basement. I told you, Sookie, I didn't want him in my house, on my property, in my end of town. And here he is, living in my basement."

Her face grew red, and I realized I was right. She'd known all along.

"I didn't know anything. I knew Cat was seeing someone, as of yesterday, but that's it. It."

"I don't believe you. And if you're lying about that, who the hell knows what else you haven't told me." And at that point, I knew I'd said too much. Gone too far. Way too far, after everything we'd been through, our separation, our earlier problems with Bones.

"I'm not doing this." She whispered. "You can't drag that up again. You trusted me, or at least I thought you did. I guess I was wrong. Why don't you go back to Pam's. Or, here's a better idea. I'll go back to Pam's." She glanced at her overnight bag, and before I knew what was happening, she'd pulled everything out of it from the last couple of days and repacked it, and was out the door, after kissing the kids goodbye.

It's funny, how quickly things completely fall apart. I don't know quite what I was expecting, her to come back the next night after work, but she didn't. She called the kids, but hung up when I took the phone from Max. I got an email the next morning, outlining a visitation schedule for the next two weeks, which seemed to indicate that she would be telecommuting from the Hamptons.

The first week went by really quickly, I guess because I was busy with things, but the loneliness was palpable during the time we usually spent together each day. We always brushed our teeth at the same time, curled up for Jeopardy on the couch, the mundane things that were vital pieces of our lives.

I didn't sleep much when she wasn't there, and for the first time, I got a taste of what it was like being a single parent, which wasn't fun at all. In fact, it was incredibly stressful. And I missed her, more than I had missed her in Paris, because it wasn't like we were just apart physically, there was a very real emotional disconnect as well. I really didn't think, at first, what I said should have gotten the reaction it did.

But she didn't give me the opportunity to ask for further explanation either. She didn't take my calls, and when she picked the kids up on the weekends, she uttered a quick hello for their sake and was gone again. Two weeks stretched into three, and it was late afternoon on a Friday when I decided I'd had enough. I called Stella, who I'd left completely in the dark on the situation to watch the kids, and drove down to the Hamptons.

It was now late April, and all the signs that spring was in the air were apparent. Flowers were in bloom, birds were singing, and we should have been looking forward to a rather relaxing summer together. I'd all but been given the job as Chair, pending official announcements in a couple of weeks, and she should have had most of July and half of August off. Instead, I was coping with a crying Ceci most nights and a stoic but obviously sad Max that knew way more than he was letting on. I wasn't sure what she told the kids when she had them on the weekends, but I'd just told them that Mom was really busy with work like I had been in the fall.

No one was buying that though. Stella had been incredibly weird when I left, and had given me a really big hug. I wondered if Sookie had called her. Pam knew, from me, but told me that Sookie hadn't been taking her calls either. We both decided that it would be immature to leave a message pretending there was a problem in the hopes that she'd call one of us back and actually talk to us. Cat had made me dinner a couple of nights, bringing it up and giving me a sympathetic smile when I'd thank her. I didn't ask her about Bones, and she didn't volunteer the information. She wasn't around much though, so I figured she was either at his place, or she was burying her nose in her work, or avoiding me. I wasn't exactly fun to be around.

I hadn't really stopped trying, resorting to leaving a long rambling message after putting the kids together telling her about my day, and apologizing for my running off at the mouth.

As I pulled into the driveway, I noted that Bill was there. A part of me was infuriated about that, even though I knew I had no right to be. They were friends. I was okay with them being friends. Better than okay, even. I'd encouraged it. I knocked, which felt odd at a place I considered my second home and after a few minutes, Sookie and Bill came to the door.

"Gee, Bill, I guess you better go," she said bitterly, shooting him a knowing look. "Don't want people to think anything inappropriate is going on, since I can't be trusted."

Bill looked at me apologetically. "Yes, Mother has dinner prepared. I'll give you a call next weekend and we'll get the kids together again?"

She nodded, and gave him a hug, still not acknowledging me. "Sounds good. I'll cook this time. My best to Selah?"

"Of course." He nodded, and gave me a smile. "Eric."

I nodded back, returning a less optimistic grin. "Bill."

He moved past me, and Sookie walked into the house, leaving the door open behind her. I took this as an indication that I was to follow her. She was wearing a vibrant pink tunic which brought out the beginnings of her summer tan, and she was thinner than she had been a few weeks ago. I didn't like to see that. A pang of guilt hit me in the gut.

"The house looks nice. You've been doing some gardening," I remarked, hoping I'd wake up, and she'd be gracious and genteel like she usually was. She was a great wife. The best wife I could have found. Far better than I deserved.

She sat down at the kitchen table and crossed her legs. "What are you doing here, Eric?"

I sat down across from her. She'd painted the kitchen. It was nice, an olivey shade that I wouldn't have chosen, but it worked. "I came to talk."

"About?"

"Our marriage? Our family? Those things?" I shrugged. "Throw me a bone here, Sook."

Her nostrils flared. "Throw you a bone? You want me to throw you a fucking bone? You spent the last three months going on like everything was fine when you thought I was fucking around on you. You never got over that stupid kiss, which I told you about right away and didn't initiate. After eight years, you think I'm just going to up and take someone else's side and disregard your feelings?"

"I'm sorry."

"You should be fucking sorry," She spat. "We had this perfect fucking life, and then you upped and vanished for four months and left a path of doubt behind. You didn't have to go. We could have figured it out."

I stood up and contemplated leaving, because I had nothing to say to that. I'd been so caught up in making everything perfect, with my schedule and professional life that I'd forgotten that things were already as perfect as they could have been. And it was right then and there that it hit me. I could have lost it all.

So I just said how I felt. "I'm sorry," I whispered, moving closer to her, close enough to see the early tears in her eyes. She was angry, hurt, frustrated, and sad. And it was all completely unnecessary, and my fault, to boot. I'd missed a lot. Her challenges with her new jobs, new responsibilities, all while having single parenting duties thrust on her as well. And an absentee husband, that was needy as fuck. And in a single misplaced line, I'd dredged all that shit up again, ripe for the processing. Because I wasn't over it.

Come hell or high water though, I was going to find a way to be.

She pushed my hand away as reached for her cheek before standing and looking up, way up at me, the anger still flashing in her eyes. "I want you to go."

In her voice though, there was the slightest bit of hesitation. And like the last dead leaves that held onto their trees through the winter, I clung to that as I forcefully picked her up and set her on the table, and pulled her into my chest.

"No. I'm not going anywhere."

"Fuck you," she said, with even more hesitation. "Go home."

"I am home," I replied, as my lips found hers.

**Sookie**

I hated that I'd married such an attractive man sometimes. Hated it. I wrapped my legs around his hips, and without a word, our lips still stuck together, he carried me to our room. After he set me on the bed, I stood up again and roughly undid his fly and pushed his pants down. I wanted him, so badly, I had for weeks, but I was just so angry. Angry about everything that had happened in the last year that I'd shoved down, deep down, but was still bubbling away, threatening to spill over each and every day. I'd known he wasn't over it. Eric Northman wasn't the type to get over someone else coveting what was his.

And as he slammed me against the headboard and pulled me down onto his face, I reaffirmed what I already knew. No one made me feel the way did. Not just sexually, either. No one frustrated me the way he did, made me furious I thought I was going to explode, or made me as happy. And right now, those were hard things to reconcile.

We didn't look at each other, as he repositioned himself and pressed his chest against my back, pushing into me a little rougher than he did when we were being sweet, and not as hard as he did when we were fucking. There was a bit of hesitation in his movement, as if he expected me to change my mind at any minute and tell him to get the fuck out.

The inclination had been there earlier in the evening, but as he wrapped an arm securely around my chest and kissed my neck, whispering how much he loved me, and how sorry he was, all while making me shiver with his cock and well placed other hand, my resolve to never ever speak to him again faded and I began doing what I knew deep down I wanted to do, which was work things out and move forward.

But we needed to do it right.

He came with a shudder, moments after I did, and I sat back on his knees, as he shrank inside me. We sat there for quite some time, not saying a word, his arms wrapped tightly around my chest. I could the familiar rise and fall of his chest against my back and his breath on my neck.

"I think you should go," I whispered, climbing off his lap and walking to the bathroom, locking the door behind me when it all became too much.

It hurt like a motherfucker, when I decided I couldn't go back that first morning at Pam's. I'd started off wanting to make a point about his jealously with Bones, until I realized that it all ran far deeper than that. His willingness to up and leave us in the hopes of furthering his academic career, his lack of trust in me, and my ability to not only be faithful to him, but to be honest with him about things that were important. Bones living in our basement, after everything? That wasn't something I would have lied to him about.

He was a good dad, and I knew his lapse in judgement with Max had been just that, and I knew better than to do something rash like leave my family over a hypothetical situation. But this wasn't that, and our kids deserved two parents who were honest with each other, not two parents that simply paid lip service to the building blocks of a relationship, like trust and honesty. Right now, Eric and I weren't those people. We had been, sure, but somewhere, maybe in Paris, or maybe even in the Upper East Side, we'd lost that, and had been going through the motions, relying on our chemistry to keep us going.

But there was more to being married than chemistry.

He was dressed and sitting at the kitchen table when I emerged from the bathroom, flipping through a proposal I was approving before he came.

"I'll be back, you know," was his reply to my earlier statement.

"I know," I said, pulling my robe tightly around me. "But I'd like you to go now."

He stood and nodded, locking eyes with me as he walked past. "Answer the phone when I call please? I worry about you, out here by yourself."

"I'm fine."

"Neither of us are fine, Sookie. Send me a text, or something if you don't want to talk. But we need to talk."

"I know," I replied, as he walked out the door and I fought every urge I had to ask him to stay so we could wake up together, go for a walk on the beach, make pancakes like we did in the summer. Be us again. The us of less than a year ago. It was amazing how quickly things could go to shit.

He gave me a little nod, and a sad smile as he climbed in his SUV. "Goodnight."


	27. Bitters and Absolute

**Oh. My. God. She did another chapter. Can you believe it?**

**What can I say, I like tying up loose ends. Thanks for all the review love, and the comments, and for STILL READING, even though I totally let you guys down and bailed for ages. You're awesome. And you don't seem to completely hate me for what I did last chapter. You must have faith in me, or in the professor and the editor. Either way, I love it. **

**I'm almost at 1000 reviews, so every contribution that you make to help me reach the 1000 year old Viking club with the final installment of The Expert series is uber appreciated and will get you one kiss from Eric Northman.** **I'm not sure how I'll deliver that, but I'll find a way.**

* * *

**Eric**

I have to admit, when she hopped off my dick and slammed and locked the bathroom door, I felt a little used.

However, at the same time, I kind of felt like if that was the only thing I could do for her, at least it was something. I was also cavemanishly pleased that she wasn't sleeping with anyone else. I knew things hadn't gone that far, at least on my end, but it was a relief to know she hadn't given up completely either, and the way she jumped me solidified that.

Now I just needed to figure out how to get us back.

I noticed Bill's Saab still in the driveway at his mother's when I drove by, and against my better judgement, I pulled into the parking lot and called him.

"Bill Compton," he answered, his voice cold.

"Did you delete me from your cellphone?" I asked curiously, wondering why he didn't know it was me that called.

"No, I knew it was you," was his frosty reply. "What do you want?"

"To talk. I'm parked by the road outside." I really wasn't sure this was a good idea, but I'd come this far, all the way to Bridgehampton, and had just been used as a boytoy by my estranged wife, so I really had nothing left to lose. Even if that meant getting an earful from her ex-husband, which I knew was coming.

And Bill didn't disappoint. "Do you have any idea how much crap Selah is going to give me for talking to you?" He said, as he climbed in the passenger side and closed the door.

I cocked my head at him. "Why?"

"Because you're public enemy number one. We're team Sookie."

"Why? And since when are there teams?"

He snorted. "Since you were an idiot and pulled a me, ten years ago. Come on, Eric. Have you not learned from my mistakes? I know I have."

I crossed my arms. "I didn't get snipped. Well, I did, but we had a conversation about it."

"You were deceitful about your feelings. You know Sookie doesn't deal well with that. She's reverted back to Sookie ten years ago. You don't act in her best interests by skipping town in the fall, and you called her a liar. That's bad form, Northman, bad form."

Yea, that had been bad form. I hated when Bill was right. "So how do I fix this?"

Bill chuckled obnoxiously. "Remember, we got a divorce? I'm probably the wrong person to ask."

Touche. "I don't know what to do. I just want everything to go back to the way it was."

Bill raised an eyebrow. "We're adults, Eric. We're not living in the world that our children do. You can't just do the electric slide back to a year ago. But you can move forward."

I raised one back. "The electric slide? Really?"

"It's this aerobics move that Selah does to make her ass tighter or something. I have to listen to the fucking DVD five times a week. Anyway, I don't know how you fix it, but you should, and fast, so you don't get a set of separation papers in the mail and some cocky asshole jibing you at some Christmas party."

I felt like I was going to hyperventilate. It was happening. History was repeating itself. The long separation, the lack of contact on her part. I wasn't having it. We were not Sookie and Bill 2.0. We were Eric and Sookie, no version number, because we were it for one another. I looked directly at Bill. "Did she know Bones was staying in our basement?"

He rolled his eyes. "You broke his nose in two places. Do you think she knew? Do you really think she would have run the risk of that happening, if she knew? She has to deal with both of you, remember?"

"Maybe she didn't think we'd run into one another."

"Maybe with the way you feel about that guy, and hey, I'm not blaming you, that was an asshole move, kissing your wife, you should have just trusted her on that one." He opened the car door and climbed out. "Give her some space, but not too much space. That's my advice. And you have to prove to her that you're willing to change. For me, I would have probably had to have shown up with a Chinese baby, but I think you'll be able to remedy things a little easier." He chuckled. "If I'd known my life was going to turn out how it did, I never would have pulled that shit, and you never would have had a shot with her, so you better make all that shit with Mira, and the most painful time in _my_ life count for something besides those two great kids of yours." He slammed the door, and went back inside, and left me sitting beside the road.

I needed to fix this, and fast, but I had no idea how to do that.

**Sookie**

"I've got the tiramisu from Via Emilia like you asked," Bones said, a grin on his face. "And I may have got us each a couple of pieces."

"This is going to be one of those meetings, huh?" I sighed, pushing the kid's drawing utensils aside as he sat down across from me.

He shook his head. "No, no. Just a lot of things for you to sign. Things are going well. Everyone is doing their jobs."

"I'm getting a lot done here too. Who knew two days in the office a week would be so productive?" I smiled as he slid a piece of tiramisu across the table. I'd been driving in on Monday and Fridays to pick up the kids and drop them off and put in some face time in the office. It was a lot of driving.

"Niall hasn't been in much either."

"I know. I ran into him last week at the market." He hadn't given any indication that he gave a shit about me working from home for a while. I guess I'd earned it, finally after all these years. "How's Cat?"

He got the shit eating grin on his face that he always did when I asked about her. "Fantastic. Wonderful. She's fucking perfect."

" My advice, from a divorcee that's estranged from husband number two? Don't do it."

"Luv, I've done it before, shacked up, had fuck buddies. There's potential for disaster in everything."

I shrugged. "I suppose so. I guess it just hurts more than I ever imagined it would. Maybe because I never imagined it would happen."

He nodded towards the door. "Get off your self-righteous high horse and go fix it then. You've got two lovely children, and for some reason, you seem awfully attached to that arrogant prick."

"He's not..." I stopped myself. "Takes one to know one."

"Are we seven?" He cocked an eyebrow. "Do you want to start over again? Share your kids with someone you're pining over while you're stuck looking for someone else that may or may not measure up?"

"Let's get this stuff signed," I said, as I reached for the envelopes. "Have you been at the house?"

"You told me not to go. Cat's been spending most nights at mine."

"Good boy." I slid my glasses on and looked at the first report, the ancillary budget for the quarter. "You don't need to aggravate him further. Your nose looks better."

"It feels better, and everyone's stopped looking at me like I'm a moron that gets drunk and walks into walls, or gets into barfights or something." He'd really been in rough shape for a while. His doctor had told him it was one of the worst breaks he'd ever seen that didn't require surgery. Eric had really done a number on him.

I gave him a half smile. "I really do appreciate you keeping quiet about that."

He raised his eyebrows. "Luv, if I didn't, the whole office would think we were snogging, and I wouldn't do that to you."

I nodded, grateful that we'd been able to rebuild our relationship like we had, after what happened. It was almost better now, because we had real boundaries, and the flirtation had ceased and developed into a stronger, more genuine relationship. I was happy that he was happy with Cat. He was a whole different person since they became involved, lighter, more relaxed.

"I miss him, Bones."

"Then do something about it. And sign here." He pointed to a contract for the big introduction to psychology text. Eric had a profile box in that book.

I lay away long after he left that night, thinking about how to fix my life. I really had no idea. It hurt like hell, sleeping in an empty house, when for so long I'd felt the familiar comfort of having the kids around every night. I'd thought time and time again about going back, for their sake, but had quickly convinced myself that they were better off having two parents that loved them to bits in person part time than two parents that were bitter and angry at each other in their presence full time. It was a hard realization to come to, but I didn't want to do any damage that way. We were both doing our darndest to make sure they enjoyed their time with each of us. Ce and Max had both gone on and on about Dad letting them make pizza for dinner, and how he met them at school almost every day. Max even leta late night McDonald's trip that he wasn't supposed to tell me about slip.

Half of marriages ended in divorce, and if done right, those kids grew up to be well functioning adults. It was the ones that were stuck in homes where the parents had pent up anger issues that probably had problems, I reasoned.

We'd been so perfect once. Not even so long ago. I wished, more than anything that we'd not spent the last four months fucking our problems away and action dug at the wound him leaving in the fall had left instead of letting it fester.

He'd been texting me for the past three nights, since he came over for what was probably our worst attempt at communicating ever. I'd been writing him back to let him know that the Hamptons strangler hadn't gotten me.

Tonight though, even though it was two in the morning, I called.

It took him a while to answer his cell, but I didn't want to wake up the kids. When he finally did, it was obvious he'd been sleeping.

"Sookie?" he grumbled. "What time is it? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I just wanted to let you know I was fine." He knew I was fine. I'd texted him hours earlier.

"Is there any reason you wouldn't be? Do you need me to come down there?"

I bit my lip, trying to prevent myself from sobbing into the phone. "No. I just, I wanted to hear your voice."

"That's nice to hear." He covered the phone and hushed Lil, who had been disrupted from her beauty sleep by my call and was bark-whining. "Maybe you should have Lil down there. Keep you company."

"I'm not great company."

He was quiet for a minute. "Come home, Sook. We don't have to do this."

"Nothing's changed. I can't."

"Why don't we try and change together? We were always good at working together. We can be a project. A work in progress. I'll give you free reign to edit the shit right out of me."

I rolled onto my back and looked out the window at the clear night, and the moon over the sea. "All marriages are a work in progress, Eric. We were just a particularly clean draft. I should let you get back to sleep."

"Don't," he said, in a firm tone that quickly softened. "I want to fix this, but I want to give you space, but not too much space, because I don't want you to forget how right we are."

I let out an audible, cracked sigh. "I know. Goodnight."

**Eric**

It was a Thursday afternoon when Bones darkened my doorway at NYU. I looked up at him, after sensing someone standing there.

"What?" I snapped, as I felt myself grow tense at his presence. I wanted to hit him again, and again, and again. But I wouldn't.

He narrowed his eyes at me. "I think it's time you and I had a bit of a chat."

"And I think I'd rather talk to anyone but you."

He shrugged and made himself at home sitting in front of me and pulling out a huge envelope. "Your pages are ready for your book. I thought I'd save us the postage and drop them off since I'm meeting Cat after her night class. We are in a recession, after all. My nose is all healed by the way, thank you for asking."

I reached for it across the table, and he held onto it, and we stared each other down momentarily, until finally he let go, and I yanked it over to my side of the desk. "Great. I'll look at it sometime."

"We wrote the acknowledgements for you in house, since you weren't replying to your editor's emails last week. Perhaps you should take a read."

"Yea, later." I glanced back down at the budget report I was making up for the summer semester, and hoped he'd leave. He didn't, and it was then that I remembered that Cat was teaching till ten. It was just after six. "I need to get home to my children." Stella was watching them. I hadn't given her a time I'd be back, since I did have some work to do, but it was a good excuse. Not that I even needed one.

"Your wife didn't know I was staying in your basement, and Cat didn't invite me. I just showed up because I was worried about her in the storm. I've taken quite a fancy to her."

I glanced up at him. "She's an idiot then."

"You know, I thought the same thing about Sookie after meeting you for the first time." He met my stare. "Funny."

"Is there a point to you being here?"

"Well, I was going to help you fix your marriage, but if you don't want my help, which clearly you don't, I guess I'll be on my way." He stood. "It's a pity. For all her intelligence and charm, she's quite hung up on you. I don't get it myself."

"How are you going to help me with anything? You're the cause of all of this."

Bones' eyes grew dark, and he moved in closer to me, planting his hands firmly on my desk. "If you think I'm the cause of your insecurities, then you're a bigger imbecile than I originally thought. A real man owns his weaknesses and overcomes them. He doesn't blame them on others."

I stood up, just barely towering over him. That was frustrating. I towered over everyone. "Get out of my office."

"Why don't you grow a pair and throw me out? I know you want to. Now, are you going to be a pussy and actually hit me on purpose this time, or are you going to listen to what I have to say?"

In a move that surprised even me, I sat down, and he did the same. "Make it quick."

"Let's not do this here. We've got to make it look real. I know a pub a couple of blocks from here that has Carlsburg on tap. You like that stuff, yes?"

"I'm Swedish, not Danish."

"Whatever." He stood again. "Come on then. First round is on the Press. Don't tell your wife we weren't talking business. She signs my expense reports."

After a tense pint, every minute threatening to erupt in violence, he finally revealed his plan, and it was stupid, idiotic, and I knew Sookie would see right through it.

However, it was all I had, and it was just ridiculous enough to work.


	28. House By the Sea

**Yep, I'm still the fastest gun in town when I want to be. BAM! Without further adieu, here's the next chapter, and I've almost made it to 1000! Thanks for that ladies (I assume you're all ladies).**

**Anyway, I hope you like what I'm doing here. I got a little silly. It wasn't supposed to be like this, but I think it works.**

**Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

**Sookie**

When I picked up the kids Friday evening, I came home to a bit of a shock.

Two men, who should not have been drinking and laughing together in my overgrown garden while my kids ran around.

Bones and Eric.

I looked at them both sideways, as Ce wrapped herself around my legs and rambled on about her day. They both smiled innocently over their Guinness and continued chatting as if I wasn't there.

It was very off-putting. Wrong, in so many ways. But there it was.

"Okay, well, I'm going to go," I said, once the kids had packed up their school stuff and clothes.

Bones waved at me, an amused grin on his face. "See you, Luv."

Eric waved as well, and didn't even flinch at Bones' term of endearment. "I'll call you about Max's birthday party tomorrow. Maybe Sunday. Pam might stop by too. She hasn't seen the kids in a while and she's in the Hamptons this weekend."

"Okay then. If you're talking to her, get her to call because we might be at the beach. It's supposed to be a nice weekend."

"Yep, I'll tell her. We're meeting her for dinner in a bit."

I looked between them, both of them with smug, yet innocent smiles on their faces. "Okay, well have fun."

"Cheers," Bones shouted after me as I slammed the back door.

To say I was confused as I drove down to the Hamptons would have been an understatement. I knew Bones had dropped off his manuscript sometime this week, but I thought he would have just left it with the secretary, avoiding Eric altogether. Were they friends now? What the fuck had happened?

"Daddy wants to know how long he's on time out for," Ce asked, as we pulled into the driveway.

"No he doesn't," Max responded, glaring at his sister. "You want to know."

"He's not on time out." I thought about a way to explain it besides a mommy and daddy vacation, but came up with nothing, because a gigantic part of me had known that we were down, but not out. "Well, maybe we're both on time out. And I don't know."

"Bones called you Dad's old lady. What's that mean?" Ce cocked her head at me.

Fucking Bones. "What else did Dad and Bones say?" I asked, as I helped Ce out of the car and grabbed her bag.

Max piped up. "He said they'd drink until they didn't hate each other."

That was going to be a lot of drinks, I though to myself, as I unlocked the front door. "Anything else?"

"Dad said that he was too old for that many drinks."

I smiled to myself as I started dinner, spaghetti. That was certainly true. I doubted Eric's ability to drink that much and survive the weekend. "Yea, he probably is. We'll go get ice cream after dinner if you guys eat up."

**Eric**

Four beers later, I didn't hate Bones with the passion of a thousand burning suns. Maybe a hundred, but not a thousand. Sure, he was still cocky and obnoxious, but a little bit less so. And we both liked beer. And running. And Voltaire. We were about to leave to meet Pam at Gramercy Tavern when he got a call.

"Hey baby. Yes Luv, we're making nice. No, we're just going for dinner. I'll call you later. I miss you too Kitten. Kiss kiss."

I snorted, before breaking out into a full out roar as he shoved his phone in his pocket. "You're totally pussy whipped. Or 'kitten' whipped, or whatever."

He rolled his eyes. "Listen, prick. You're hanging out with someone you hate to make your wife take you back. Let's not throw stones."

"Fine," I replied, as I pulled on a sweater. "Have you met my sister?"

I'd already had the plan with Pam when Bones hatched his hair-brain let's be friends scheme, so I'd invited him along. I figured Pam might make it less awkward, having to spend an entire evening with him. We'd timed it perfectly though, both of us a couple of beer in when Sookie showed up so we didn't look too forced.

I'd seen the confused look in her eye, and found myself somewhat pleased. She'd figure out what I was doing.

I just had no idea how she'd react to it. Whatever she decided, it couldn't be worse than how things were now.

"No, I haven't met her. Wait, yes I did, at Thanksgiving. She's funny, yes?"

I shrugged, knowing that Pam was just going to love this. "She's something."

Pam was sitting there when we arrived, looking like the cat that swallowed the canary. "So it's come to this."

I shot her a look. "Yes. It's not like we were able to come up with much else."

"I just think you needed to show up with some of that tiramisu she's into recently and that probably would have done the trick," Bones said, chuckling. "The look she got around that? I don't think she would have been able to stay angry at anyone. I even got her to sign off on a costing that was under forty per cent for a book on sex and the civil war. It'll sell like twelve copies. She was like oh, yes Bones, whatever you want. Give me the other piece."

Pam laughed, and I growled at him, before taking a step back and realizing something very important.

He was joking. I knew how to take a joke. I had no idea why I was being so sensitive with him. Bill and I joked all the time now.

"Well why didn't you just tell me that. We could have saved a fortune on this dinner."

"I'm writing it off!" Pam exclaimed, a little too excited. "Entertainment. Alcide's got a surplus entertainment budget, and I think this certainly qualifies. So, tell me, how does this friend thing work. First off, brother, Sookie is your only friend, and maybe Bill, but I think he's maybe just waiting for you to have a heart attack so he can win Sookie back by being close when it happens. Smooth move, finding a wife that has kids that yours like. He's sly, that Bill. There was Clancy, but, well, he fucked your daughter..."

Bones blinked at us. "Your mate shagged your daughter? And you don't want to be my friend? I'm hurt, Northman. All I did was mistakenly kiss your wife when I thought you were on the outs."

Again, joking. I took a deep breath. "I also kicked Clancy's ass, and got him fired from his job. Let's not forget that."

"You should have seen it. It was brilliant. First, Amelia and I planned a fake orgy, which was actually a real orgy, and then I..."

Bones put up his hand. "Amelia, from work?"

Pam smiled. "Yea. Anyway, then gagged and blindfolded him, and proceeded to cast him out of the orgy into the cold winter with no wallet, no nothing. It was really Stella, Eric's daughter that got him fired. She went to the paper after he gave her an STI. A treatable one."

Bones looked at us both, glassy eyed. "Where have you people been all my life? I feel like I was born into the wrong family. And Amelia swings?" He shook his head. "I always thought she was a prude with that haircut."

"Oh, no. I met my husband swinging with Amelia. We cut her out eventually. She's too needy."

Bones nodded. "Yes, she is needy. She's a real pain in the arse, that one."

I smiled. "I know. She's been a thorn in my side for like ten years now. She's actually how Sookie and I met."

"Right, when she used to come down off her throne and mingle with the commoners." Bones chuckled. "Seriously though, no one works harder than Sookie. I have no idea how she juggles all the things she does."

I smiled, thinking of Ce wrapped around her leg earlier. "She's really amazing."

Pam nodded for another round of some ridiculously expensive micro-brewed beer. "See, we agree on that too. I bet if you hadn't vanished all fall, we would have been friends from the start."

"I didn't have a choice." I looked at Pam and Bones, who both had an eyebrow raised at me. "It was for the good of everyone."

Pam glanced down and stirred her artichoke dip. "Right."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "What?"

"You went because you want to be the king of everything. That's why you went. It's never enough for you. So you would have had to teach a night class. Boo hoo. You would have weaselled out of it anyway. You just had to be right. " Pam rolled her eyes. "Mr. Have Your Cake and Eat It Too, and then expect us to all throw you a fucking pity party because you couldn't have everything at the same time."

Bones chuckled at her tone, which was incredibly irritating. "So you're that guy. Mr. Do It All. I'm not surprised. From what I heard, you were Mr. Do Them All too."

I glared at him. "Where the fuck did you hear that, anyway?"

"Sam Merlotte. And Niall Brigant. But more Sam. We went for drinks one night, actually the night before he was canned, and he spilled on all your escapades. Snogging that old former editor," he tisked at me. "She was kind of hot, in a Meryl Streep kind of way."

I nearly spat out my beer. "What? Maudette? I never fucked Maudette."

Bones shrugged. "That's not what I heard."

No wonder he'd thought I was an asshole. "Why would Sam say that?"

"Probably to make Sookie look like an idiot," Pam said, finishing off her martini.

"Let's go egg his house," Bones said, looking like a kid at Christmas. "I know where he lives. I went over there for dinner when I first moved to town and he tried to get me on side."

"We can't do that." I laughed.

"Yes, we can. Let's do it, in the name of bonding."

"Eric, that's totally something you would do." Pam said, a huge grin on her face. "Remember that Halloween in Sweden?"

I glared at Pam. "I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Remember? Ingrid's house. Three nights after her wedding. We went together. I loved that night." Pam looked at me, a reminiscent look falling over her buzzed face. "We both felt so much better."

I had felt a lot better. "No one calls me a whore and gets away with it."

"He also said Sookie was a gold digger."

I looked back and forth at my two dinner partners turned accomplices. "We'll have to get some eggs."

Bones shrugged. "That's no problem."

"And we can never speak of this to anyone."

The both nodded. "Deal."

Two hours later, after another beer or two at Pam's, we got out of a taxi five blocks from Sam's Upper West Side address, dressed in varying degrees of black from Alcide's enormous closet, none of which fit either of us, since he was far broader in the chest than we could ever hope to be. We were glad he wasn't around to point it out. Neither of us had mentioned our shortcomings in that area. We looked ridiculous. It didn't need to be said.

"How is he paying for this house still? He didn't take the retirement package," Bones remarked, as we looked up at a townhouse that was bigger than mine, and in a nicer area. We never would have been able to afford a house like that on both our salaries, and from what I heard about Sam's lady friend, she was the gold-digger.

"I have no idea. Family money?" I shrugged. "Who cares. It's not like we want to stick around long enough to ask. You're sure this is it, right?"

He nodded. "He's got that stupid gargoyle door knocker. Like he lives in a fucking castle or something. And look, there he is, with his fat head, watching the telly." He nodded to the illuminated window, and sure enough, there he was, shirtless, watching Jeopardy.

Jeopardy was something Sookie and I always shared. I was hit with a wave of egging fury. "Let's egg this motherfucker."

A carton later, major damage was done, and the three of us were running through central park like teenagers, laughing so hard that we could hardly breathe. Eventually we collapsed in the Sheep Meadow.

"I can't believe we did that," Pam gasped. "We egged the shit out of that asshole."

"That we did, Luv. That we did," Bones chuckled, sprawling out in the damp grass.

"You realize, Pam, that we'll never be able to discipline our kids for anything. Anything at all."

"We won't tell them about this until they're in college. We can be as high and mighty as we want until then."

I shrugged. "Fair point."

"You know why I love Cat so much? She doesn't want any of the filthy buggers. She wants a Jack Russell someday. Not even right away. Someday." He sighed. "Perfection."

"Children are the orgasm of life, Bones. You'll be missing out."

He raised an eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure I'll have enough orgasms to make up for it, thank you very much. Don't even try to tell me that those little buggers aren't cockblockers to the extreme."

"Amen to that," Pam said, pulling a flask out of her purse. "Tell me it gets better when you can ship them off for the day. Please, Eric. Lie if you have to."

I glanced at my sister. "You just have to work around them. Sookie and I..." I stopped myself. We had been really good at that. Had being the operative term. I needed to change that. "Okay, so plan for Sunday."

Pam nodded. "I pick up the kids at eleven. You call at eleven fifteen, arrive at eleven thirty. Make up by noon, and I'll keep the kids for the week and you'll grand gesture the hell out of her. And you'll owe me. Fashion week in New York, and Paris."

I nodded and glanced at Bones. "Pam likes to fuck models. With her husband. Fashion week is like her Christmas."

Bones looked at her with admiration."You're a cool chick, Northman. You know that?"

"I've been told a time or two." She smiled. "And you're not bad for a Brit. Eric, maybe you guys should be real friends."

"Let's not go nuts here, Pam." I raised an eyebrow. "I'm not giving you a free pass on kissing my wife, but I guess I can see how you would have thought I was a douche."

"I also heard you fucked Amelia." Bones rolled onto his stomach. "Which seemed off. I should have known. I knew there was something off about her. The carpet didn't seem to match the drapes."

"Doesn't that refer to pubic hair?" Pam said, grinning broadly as she passed her flask around.

Bones shrugged. "I think it could be used in a variety of situations. Anything exterior to interior related. The metaphor stands."

"What are we going to do now?" I asked, a pang of loneliness hitting me at the thought of going home to an empty house. The weekends were the worst.

Bones stood up and brushed the grass off his knees. "I've got some Northern Lights at mine. It's nice and mellow."

"Done." Pam said, struggling to get up with her heels on. I'd tried to convince her to wear flats with the egging, but she insisted that she ran better in heels, and she'd proven me wrong by peeling past both of us as we fled the scene of the crime. "I'm free and easy until Sunday when I head to the Hamptons."

"Me too. I'm in as well." I grabbed the bag with the cartons and discarded it in a garbage can. "Remember, let's never speak of this again."

"A lost night, if you will." Bones nodded. "I like it. I haven't had one of those since my days as a grad student male escort."

Pam looked at him, her mouth agape. "Now that's a story I'm dying to hear."

**Sookie**

Pam showed up around eleven on Sunday, after politely calling and requesting to take the kids to the beach and for lunch. I smiled after hanging up, pleased that Eric had told her not to be an uber bitch which was what I was expecting from her. Pam was great, and loyal to a fault to her family, which normally worked in my favour, but I knew when it came down to me or Eric, he would always come first. And that was completely understandable.

It didn't meant I needed to hear from uber bitch Pam though. I knew it wasn't going to help the situation.

I'd racked my brain for days, trying to figure out what was up with him and Bones, and unsure if it was something I should ask either of them about. I quickly realized that there was no way around it. I had to know what they were scheming. Max's spill had let me know that there was drinking involved, and I had the feeling that when it came down to it, the only thing they really had in common was me.

If it turned out that Eric had decided to befriend Bones, in an attempt to prove that he was over things, then it was a pretty grand gesture, considering how they felt about one another. I needed some time to process that.

As soon as I'd sat down to read the Sunday Book Review in the Times, the phone rang.

Speak of the devil.

"Hey."

He sounded chipper. "Hey. Do you have some time to talk about Max's birthday?"

"Yep. Your sister just picked him up."

"Okay, I'll be there in ten." And then he hung up.

Be here? It was then I knew I'd been Northman ambushed.

He showed up at the door, in a perfectly barely snug black t-shirt and a pair of grey chino shorts I'd bought for him the summer before. When everything had been much better than it was now. I sighed to myself.

"What are you doing in this neck of the woods?" I asked curiously, trying not to too obviously eye fuck my husband, who irritatingly got more handsome with age.

He leaned against the door, and the faintest hint of a tan was beginning to colour his face. I loved us in the summer. We'd had so many great summers. "I played nine holes with Alcide and Bones this morning. Alcide is terrible at golf."

"So are you."

"I'm better than Alcide," he said, a broad grin on his face. "But Bones is better than both of us put together."

And now he was complimenting Bones? Had I strolled into some bizarro universe? "Yea, he mentioned he used to caddy as a teenager once. Come on in. I don't have lunch or anything." I moved aside, and he followed me in.

He held up a bag. "I got us takeout from the Southampton Publik. Scampi and Salmon. I know you like both so you can pick."

I smiled. I did like both of those. "We can split them. How have you been?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. You?"

"Fi..." And then I stopped myself. I was tired of pretending everything was fine. "I've been better. But you know that."

He reached for a couple of plates and filled up two glasses with water. "You know, we don't have to do this like this."

His voice was calm, not in a way that he talked to Ce when he wanted her to understand something, but in a very mature, adult sort of way. When adults were having a rational conversation.

So I took a deep breath, sat down in front of my scampi and salmon and hopped on that train.

"Do you have any idea how much it hurts, you, of all people, not trusting me?"

He nodded. "I don't know why I said that. I do trust you. You've never given me any reason not to."

"But that really bugged you, what happened with Bones. I got over with with Mira, and it was the exact same thing."

He popped a French fry in his mouth. "We don't operate the same. You know that. My ego is the size of a hot air balloon. It eclipses the sun at times." He laughed. "It's really the cause of all of this. Why I went to Paris in the first place, why it bothered me so much, even though you did what you should have done, more than you should have done. You didn't even have to tell me, because it wasn't a big deal. I was the one that blew it up."

I couldn't argue with that. "I'm sorry I was a bitch about you and Max going into the house."

"You were kind of a bitch about that. I felt bad enough without you adding to it." He looked at me solemnly. "I never would have forgiven myself if anything had happened."

It was funny how true the Chaucer quote about time healing all wounds was. Mind you, I'm sure he wasn't imagining four weeks when he said, it, but when I looked at Eric, I felt optimistic that it had done at least the first part of that. I doubted that four weeks ago, we would have been able to lay it all out like we were doing now without getting much angrier, and making the situation even worse.

Ce was right. It really was a time out.

"So Max's birthday." I eyed the tiramisu that he'd left on the counter happily. "What are you thinking?"

"Pam's already planning it. Star Wars. She's got someone dressing up as Chewbacca. He'll love it."

Max was really into Star Wars lately, ever since he and Eric had watched them all together over January and February. "Oh."

"That was all an elaborate charade." He smiled boyishly.

"And your friendship with Bones?"

He shrugged at that. "Make of that what you will. I'm not going to tell you what to think."

I smiled back at him. "Being civil at the company Christmas party would have sufficed."

"He's not so bad." He looked down at his greens. "And as Pam so kindly reminded me, I have been friends with far bigger assholes."

Yep, Clancy certainly fit that bill. "What are we going to do here?"

He pulled a sheet of my work stationary out and slid it across the table. "I wrote out a plan while we were waiting for Alcide to get out of the sand. I know you like to-do lists. Feel free to edit as you wish."

I unfolded the paper and looked at the ten points he'd jotted down.

_Talk as much as you want about what happened._

_Kiss and make up._

_Hopefully kiss and make up some more._

_Talk again, if necessary (this will likely be necessary)._

_Pack the kids bags for a week with Aunt Pam._

_Go to East by Northeast for dinner._

_Watch three weeks of taped Jeopardy episodes ( I missed a week of DVRing)._

_Do what we need to do to get back on the same page (I thought we better figure this out together)._

_Come up with a reasonable thing to tell the kids about the last month._

_Resume cohabitation._

"Aren't we resuming co-habitation if you stay here for a week?"

"That's what you're taking issue with?" He raised an eyebrow, and then shrugged. "I guess if that's it, then I did alright."

I smiled at the relieved and satisfied grin on his face. "I think it's a good first draft."


	29. Naked as We Came

**So one chapter and an epilogue left! Thanks so much for all the love, and I'm glad you're liking the Expat wrap up here! **

**I've been blogging up a storm lately, and I'd love it if you checked it out: seastarr08(Dot)wordpress(dot)com. I posted a recipe for Rapture Pie earlier. It was orgasmic.**

* * *

**Sookie**

I leaned my back against Eric's chest as we both lay back in the chaise I'd bought for the backyard the week before for tanning. We hadn't said much for a bit, but that was okay. We both had a lot to think about.

But at least we were doing it in the same county. On the same chair even.

I smiled to myself as I felt his fingers gently tug at my hair, pulling it into an imperfect French braid. He was a pro at Ce's hair now, but it had taken some time. Hair braiding didn't come naturally to him, even though he'd once had hair as long as his daughter's.

We both flinched, pulled out of our silence by Pam's ringtone on his phone. The song was unfamiliar.

"What's that ring?" I turned around and asked, as he went to answer.

"Egg raid on Mojo. Beastie Boys. Inside joke." He smiled with a shrug and answered. "Hey. Yea, we're here. Come by whenever. Yea, it's fine, we're just in the back. The front door is open. Yea, we're wearing clothes. Don't be weird." He hung up. "They'll be here in twenty minutes or so."

"Do we just tell them that we're having some Mom and Dad time? Are we going to confuse them?"

He nodded. "Probably. But probably no worse than we've already confused them. I think Max gets it more than we think, and Ce, well, she's going to be a bit of a spoiled brat no matter what we do." I glared at him as he chuckled. "What? She's related to Pam."

I shook my head. "And to me. More me, than Pam."

He kissed my forehead, and I closed my eyes. "Then she'll be fine. She won't remember any of it in a couple of months, just like she's forgotten about me being in Paris. It's not like we screamed and fought in front of her and called each other names."

I nodded. We had been very mature about everything, and that was something small to be proud of. "Here's hoping."

"We can explain it to her. She seemed to have the time out concept down."

I cocked my head at him, as I swung my leg over his so we were facing one another. "She asked when you were getting out of time out?"

He shook his head. "She asked when _you_ were getting out of time out."

"So she knew the deal then." I shook my head back, grinning as he reached out and gently cupped my face, running his thumbs over my cheekbones. "She's too smart for her own good."

"They know that we love them, more than anything, and that's really the most important part, as far as I'm concerned." He shrugged. "What can we do besides that? We're going to make mistakes, probably far worse ones than this."

"That's a fair point." I sighed. "My Mom once left my brother in a mall. We had to pick him up at the police station, and he turned out okay."

"Um, I've met your brother, and that's a cautionary tale at best." He wrapped his long arms around me and pulled me to his chest. "We've got years to make this up to them. But eventually, it's just going to be you and I."

"We always said we'd make sure we were good." I wrinkled up my nose. "I think we assumed because we were sleeping together, we were okay."

"There are actually statistics that show that couples have sex more when one is cheat..." He stopped himself. "I didn't mean anything by that. It was in a paper I read in a journal last week." The stammer in his voice was evident, and out of character, but kind of cute.

I let him squirm for a minute, before squeezing him back, and burying my face in his chest. "That's interesting."

"Yea, it is. And I guess that's the thing about statistics. They don't apply to everyone..."

"I don't think we should have sex like we did last week," I interjected. " I think it was a bad idea, and I think if we hadn't spent the last four months trying to recoup all the sex we didn't have when you were here, we might have actually talked, and not ended up in this mess."

He raised his eyebrows at me. "Okay."

And then I just put it out there. "I wouldn't cheat on you. If I ever felt like I wanted to, I'd always have enough respect for us to talk about it with you, because it would probably be indicative of bigger problems."

"Yea, it would be. And I plan to ensure that we never have to have that conversation."

The kids took a week with Pam better than expected, and I couldn't help but notice Max give Eric a high five on his way out, with Ce following behind him, beaming. I shot him a look once they were out the door. "What was that about?"

He watched Pam pull out, and closed the front door. "The kids know we're happy. They're smart. They know we're working it out."

I looked up at him, his face exuding confidence. In us. I felt bad being the one that said what needed to be said. "What if we don't work it out? We haven't really worked out anything yet."

"That's not really an option. At least not for me."

"So you're going to just push and push until we're fine?"

He shook his head. "No. Unless that's what I have to do to make sure you understand how seriously I take our relationship. It's the most important one I'll ever have with anyone."

"That's a lot of pressure, you know."

He nodded. "It is. But it always has been."

"For me too. God, if I failed at this again, after all this, I'd think there was something really wrong with me." I felt my eyes well up. I'd been really hard on myself over the last month, wondering what it was about me that made the most important men in my life either think I was a pushover, or so fragile that they couldn't lay it all out there for fear of hurting me.

Eric nodded to the couch and we sat down, one of us on each end, a whole cushion between us. I wasn't sure we'd ever sat so far apart. "I need to not let you get away with recoiling like you do. I think I thought it was a Bill-specific reaction, but you don't enjoy confrontation. I should have taken that into account."

"But I don't want you to tiptoe around me because you're afraid of me pulling, well..." I wiped my eyes. "A me. And doing this."

"Maybe we both just need to adjust a bit. Meet in the middle. I don't know. All I know is that I don't want to do what we just did again. Ever. So the way I see it, we just need to work around that."

Planning a dinner out was a good call on his part, because it meant we had to get on with things instead of sit there all night and chew on our what ifs. Instead, I showered and we both changed into our casual finery, me in a maxi-dress and a cardigan I'd bought a couple of weeks before, and he into a pair of dark jeans and a white button down that I loved him in.

"New dress?" he remarked, as he held the car door open for me.

"Yep."

"It's nice." He lowered his eyes, and took it all in. "Good stubble dress."

I snorted and smacked his arm. "My legs are very smooth. I found a waxer down here, I'll have you know."

"I don't care about any of that, you know." He shook his head. "But I never did. I don't know any men that really do."

Dinner was nice, with both of us more subdued around each other than we had ever been. We'd always been very comfortable around each other, and we still were, as we picked away at our dinner, but this was kind of a new version of us, a stripped down, humbled model. I remembered that early tension, we used to have, and when I thought about it, I really had no desire to go back to that. I liked the certainty we'd developed over time, the stability. Even if it had been wobbly lately.

Maybe we were like one of those silly inflatable punching bags with the weights in the bottom that never really toppled, just came close from time to time, but always managed to right itself. It was our natural reaction.

**Eric**

We were careful with one another on Monday and on Tuesday morning, very early, had a bit of a brawly setback on when things got a little raw after a rehash of my decision to go to Paris. I kind of understood why she didn't make more of a fuss about me going, since she didn't want to appear too needy and insecure, but we made a decision right there that we needed to shift our priorities a bit, when it came to work and family, and that were finally at a position in our lives that we could afford to do it if it was ever a necessity. We owned our house, and most of the Hamptons house. We had a basement we could rent out and make more off of than Cat was paying if we needed the income. There were freelance things we could both do to make ends meet.

Neither of us needed to do things we didn't want to do. At least not big, life altering things. We were damn lucky in that. We'd never had to fight about money, or career fulfillment. There were other things, but they were nice to take off the table.

It had taken numerous people pointing it out to me, but taking the semester in Paris, no matter how bullied I'd felt was not the right thing to do. If I'd taken the same path I did when I got back and covered things administratively, I was important enough that I could have gotten out of it. Mind you, I might have had to teach a night class for a semester or two, and it might have taken me an extra year to become Chair, but when it came down to it, those were the kinds of everyday challenges that Sookie and I were pros at working through, because we could work through them together. Working a night class would have simply meant I would have been home during the day more and would have picked the kids up for school and not put them to bed a couple of times a week. We would have griped and groaned and complained about it, but we would have adjusted, and done it together. I had tenure; it wasn't like Appius could have realistically fucked with me that much.

But when my hand was forced, I'd really been unable to see the forest for the trees. And I shouldn't have counted on Sookie to point it out for me. She didn't know the inner workings of my profession anymore than I knew the inner workings of hers.

I smiled over at her, typing away furiously at her laptop as she cleared out her inbox. I'd promised to leave her alone from nine to one each day so she could get the work she needed to do finished, since she wasn't on vacation. I wasn't really either, but it was the last week of classes and my TAs could just as easily hand out the finals as I could. I was still checking email and responding to student snivelling about grades and missed finals.

She cocked her head at me and closed her laptop. "Why did Bones want me to ask you how your leg was?"

Because he'd hit me with an egg on Saturday night and left a huge bruise on my thigh. Asshole. "Who knows. Maybe it's some British thing."

"Bullshit." She raised an eyebrow. "Maybe I don't want to know."

"Probably not." I closed the biography of J.D Salinger that I'd picked up a few weeks earlier. "Done for the day?"

She nodded. "Yea. What do you want to do?"

"Beach?"

"Sure." She wandered into the bedroom and came out a minute later in a towel, a telltale halter peeking out the top. "I'll make some lunch to take."

We ate and then fell asleep, the warm sun and the cool air off the ocean providing the perfect temperature for napping. A person would wander by now and then, but because it was still early in the season and early in the week, the beach was all but deserted. When I woke up, some time later, we were nose to nose and the wind had picked up a bit, blowing sand onto the large navy and white beach blanket that we'd spent many a summer on.

"Sook," I whispered, running my hand over the side of her face. "We're getting crispy, and I don't think we want to spend our later years looking like Louis Vuitton. We should go in."

She opened her eyes, a smile playing across her face like it always did when she woke up. I always thought she was loveliest in the morning, breaking away from some dream that I hoped I was a part of.

"Kiss me," was her reply, as she draped a hand over my hip and pulled us closer together.

"Mmm," was mine, as I pressed my lips against hers, sliding a hand around her back. She was so warm. And relaxed. We'd been sleeping together, in bed anyway, for the past couple of nights, but when I'd brush up against her, she'd be tense, and I knew what she was thinking, because as much as my libido was fighting it, I agreed. Reverting to familiarity of sex with her and I would have been an easy fix to regain the intimacy that we'd lost, but it would have been a band-aid solution.

I tugged the blanket over us, and kissed her hard, as she draped a leg over mine.

After twenty minutes or so of our sunglasses banging together and seabirds coming a little too close to our discarded lunch, she pulled away. "We can't do this."

I tried not to look disappointed. "Oh, right. Of course."

She shook her head. "No, I just mean out here. I'm not getting shit on by a bird, or peeped at by some old eccentric Hamptonite." She stood up and pulled her towel around her. "I wanted you to understand about Paris on your own, and I think you do."

I nodded, gathering up our things, very awake at the prospect of having non-awkward sex with my wife. "I'll probably never have the opportunity to reject something like that again, but I promise if it comes up I will."

"Or we'll figure out a way to go together." She linked her arm with mine, as we walked across the street and up the driveway.

If I had to compare our reunion to any sex we'd had in the past, it was certainly the first time, in Maine, on that snowy day in December that came to mind. It was quiet, sweet, incredibly satisfying, and new, but somehow familiar.

But still completely us.

I worshipped every inch of her and really, it was one of the most 'in the moment' experiences I'd ever had. I didn't think about how close we'd come to fucking things up, or how we could have been spending our time if we weren't where we were, physically and emotionally.

We lay there, one of her legs between mine, and her head on my chest. "I egged Sam's house. That's where the bruise came from. Bones' hit me with an egg. It hurt, but at the time I was so drunk..."

"I don't know if I want you two being friends if you're going to pull stuff like that," She said, wrinkling up her nose. "You're in your mid forties. He's almost forty too. I feel like you two, I don't know. You're probably too much together."

"It felt really good though," I said, unable to control the grin from breaking out on my face. "Fucking Sam and his bullshit."

"Yea, I can see how that would have felt good. You're lucky you didn't give him another heart attack though." She tugged at a couple of pieces of my chest hair, which caused me to writhe in pain.

"Ouch."

She patted my chest. "I'm sure a heart attack hurts a hell of a lot more than that."

"Question. How does Sam afford his house?"

"He invented extreme couponing. He was doing it before it was fashionable," She giggled. "His uncle invented the Pocket Fisherman or something stupid like that. How stupid is that door knocker?"

"Really stupid."

"He's selling real estate now. Go figure." She smiled. "I saw a billboard with his ugly mug on it in Queens on the way out here last week."

"Next time we egg his house, I'll invite you along. You should see Pam run in four inch heels. It's really amazing."

She tapped my nose. "There will be no next time, Eric Northman. And Pam went too?" She rolled her eyes. "Honestly. And you're going to tell our kids what they can and can't do?"

"Yes, because I'm not going to tell them about that, probably ever."

She tapped my chest. "But they will know that you had a baby with someone else when you were very young. You should want them to know who you are. You're fun."

"Ce didn't think I was fun when I had to spank her a couple of weeks ago for hitting Lil. I felt really bad about not talking that over with you first."

Sookie's eyes went wide. "I had to spank her too! She coloured the entire kitchen wall with black marker while I was in the shower. That's why I had to paint."

I shook my head, and then started laughing. "I guess we know why she was so happy when she saw us together. We don't spank her when we're together."

"I never wanted to spank her. I think it hurt me more than her. I felt like shit for days."

"Me too. Her, with those eyes that look just like yours, and that damn lip wobble she does."

"She learned that from Pam." Sookie smiled mischievously.

"Oh, no. Don't you blame that on Pam. That's all you. We never discussed spanking. It was odd to make that decision on my own."

She raised her eyebrows. "Welcome to the four months you were in Paris. Not fun, single parenting, is it?"

"Touche, Lover," I patted her head. "Want to watch some Jeopardy? We're still tied, right?" I winked at her, as we both rolled off the bed.

She snorted, as she pulled her robe on. "If by tied, you mean I'm up like forty grand, then sure."

I tugged a pair of sweatshorts on, and we resumed our position on the couch, her back pressed up against my chest, and a ratty afghan from her Gran's house in Louisiana pulled over us. I hadn't seen the afghan since Max was a baby.

"Do you think we should see a therapist?" I asked, when it became clear there was no chance in hell I was going to win.

"I don't want to see a therapist," Sookie sighed. "I don't think a therapist is going to be able to tell us anything we don't already know deep down. I know I need to dig my heels in and talk about my problems, and you know that your ego is huge and sometimes takes control of your brain. I know that you think I'm fragile, and sometimes hold things in that you shouldn't because you're afraid of hurting me, because I kind of freeze up when I'm wounded."

I exhaled a sigh of relief. "I would have, if you'd seen the value in it, but I think we're both self-aware when we take a step back and think about it. I think we just really need to work on being a team, like we always have been. We're a really great team."

"Maybe we just need some sort of code that we can insert into the conversation when things start to feel a bit off. Like a relationship safe word that indicates that we need to have a talk, and then we can force ourselves to do what needs to be done, before it blows up."

That was actually kind of smart. "Final Jeopardy?"

She turned her head and looked up at me, before rolling onto her back. "Sure. That works."

"I love you Sook." I kissed her forehead. "You know if you'd Final Jeoparady'd me in Paris, I would have been on the first flight back."

"I think you needed to do that. I don't know why, but I think you did. Maybe to remind yourself that you still had it, whatever it was that made you you before we came along? That's something I struggle with from time to time, remembering who I am without you and the kids, and for me, it's work. It's work for you too. We were always about work. It's hard to shift your priorities, especially when you like what you do."

I exhaled loudly. She'd hit the nail on the head there. "That might have been it. It's different, huh? I mean, we've had kids for a lot of years now, but there's still that hark back to doing the things you need to do."

She nodded. "I know. Remember, I took a promotion I didn't really need at the same time you went. I could have said no, given the line about family and time, but I didn't even think about doing that."

"We're a lot of years away from retirement," I said, thoughtfully. "I guess we're going to have to just be more aware of the ramifications of our careers on our home lives."

"It's ironic, in a way, since we met through work, that work would cause so many problems in our relationship down the road, since it's been the cause of so much success in both our lives in so many ways." She gave a little shrug. "Well, we've had lots of time to think about this now, and how to be better, for us and for the kids. Do you think we can actually do it?"

I didn't have to think about it. This was too important to have any doubts about. "Yes. I think if anyone can do it, it's us, and I'm actually excited to try, for us to try. I think we've both taken a lot for granted for a long time now."

"Me too." She rolled back on her side and pulled my arm around her. "Now, I believe I have a Jeopardy game to win."

The first night we were home with the kids, we ordered pizza and all sat in the living room, and performed our carefully rehearsed 'sometimes even Mom and Dad make mistakes' speech. The kids listened intently, and when we asked if they had any questions at the end, we got some unexpected ones.

"Can I put Max on time out?" Ce asked, glaring at her brother. "He wouldn't play Barbies with me."

Sookie shook her head. "Nope. Only Mom and Dad can assign time outs."

Ce wrinkled up her nose. "Did you spank each other?"

Sookie practically spit out her wine. We'd both opted for a glass of liquid courage for this chat. "What?"

"Well you spanked me when I was bad. You were bad. Did you spank..."

"No," I said, cutting her off, unexpectedly flustered. "No."

"Are you going to live here now, Mom?" Max asked, smiling at our stammering.

She nodded. "Yes. We will return to our regularly scheduled family program."

"Good. Dad makes lousy spaghetti. And he reads stories too fast."

"Thanks, Max," I said, shooting him a look. "I did the best I could."

"You're better at homework than Mom. Don't feel bad." He said, reaching for another slice of pizza. "You both have things you're good at."

Sookie nodded. "We do. Just like you too."

"Ce is good at being a brat. She ruined Aunt Pam's rug with a bottle of nail polish," Max said smugly.

Ce's lip began wobbling, and she gave her brother a look that would have intimidated anyone. "You weren't supposed to tell. You promised. Pammy said we didn't have to tell them."

Sookie and I exchanged a look. "Ce, if Pam said it was fine, it's fine."

I looked around at my little family, interacting and back to normalcy, and I realized something I'd known all along.

My life was pretty damn close to perfect.


	30. The Luckiest

**So just the epilogue to go! I bet you'll be able to guess what it is after reading this! Again, thanks so much for all the support, and I hope you like this look at things from a different perspective. If you're not reading The Night Huntress books, then why not? It's a whole year until we get another SVM book, so I hope you'll give them a shot!**

**I'll be giving teases for the epilogue, which I'm going to try and work on tomorrow with this chapter, so if you don't want one, please let me know!**

* * *

**Bones**

"Wow," she gulped, squeezing my hand tight. "there are so many of them."

"We can get through this Kitten," I replied, taking a deep breath. "We're both strong, and there are weapons at our disposal."

"Thank fuck for that," she whispered, handing me a gin and tonic from the bar. "If they weren't our bosses, I never would have agreed to any of this. I can fake it with their kids, but shit, this is like they mass produced. They could take over the world." She gasped, as about five of them started towards us, heading for the giant bounce castle to our left in Darth Vader masks.

"I've never seen these movies. I think I like them even less in masks." I downed the G&T and put my hand out for another, stuffing a five dollar bill in the tip cup. "Keep them coming, good sir."

"At least Pam had the good sense to have an open bar."

"Pam's on our side, Luv. Her little one was an accident." I raised my glass to Alcide, who was holding their daughter, whose hair seemed to be arranged in an elaborate hairstyle, with two giant piles of hair over her ears.

Cat grabbed the collar of my shirt. "Listen here, Bones. We won't be having any accidents of that sort. You got it?"

I nodded, a bit intimidated by the flare in her nostrils and the fire in her eyes. "Of course, Luv."

"And you're not going to change your mind."

My eyes went wide, as my drink was thrown out of my hand by a hoard of small ones with plastic round swords ran by. "No. Never."

She exhaled loudly. "Okay. Okay. Now we're going to get through this. It's three hours, and then we can stagger off to to their guest house and pass out."

We'd gotten an invitation for this party, and for the Memorial Day long weekend, which Cat had been thrilled about. I didn't know much about the Hamptons, besides that Sookie had a cute little house here on the beach that she'd retreated to a month or so again. She was back, now that her and Eric had made nice again, largely in part to a very smart plan that Cat had devised.

I didn't particularly care if Eric and Sookie were together, but it did mean that Sookie was back in the office and had a certain spring in her step, which made my job a little easier to handle. I didn't like being the boss, especially when all the other bosses above me had flown the proverbial coop. Apparently, Niall didn't work once the snow was gone. I hadn't seen him in months. Once and a while, I'd get a cryptic email, and I'd send a full financial report for the division, but that was it.

Eric wasn't so bad either. Despite the fact that our 'friendship' had been an elaborate rouse in the beginning, once we made a go of it, things weren't so terrible. Neither of us were versed in the act of having male friends, and incredibly inappropriate, so it kept things interesting. I was now allowed in their basement, and he and I had started a ritual of having a beer or two every Friday night. Sookie just shook her head at us, when we'd start talking about football, or some other thing she was disinterested in.

I could tell she liked it though. I'm sure it was a huge relief for her not to have to tiptoe around our working relationship. It wasn't long before Eric and I were laughing about what had happened in the fall.

Although he'd threatened my life if anything of the sort ever happened again. And not just a joking, had too many beers threat. I had the feeling he meant it. That was fine. I had come to understand their dynamic far better than I had in the beginning. He wasn't so bad.

And I was head over heels in love with Cat.

It turned out that the Hamptons was this sort of exclusive place for all the New Yorkers that hated New York in the summer. From what I'd seen of the area, you didn't have to be rich, as Pam and Alcide were to stay here, but if you weren't, chances are that you were staying with eight other people in a tiny cabin. I'd seen some girls doing this yesterday at the beach, and they kind of looked like they were piling into a clown car at the end of the night. It surprised me to know that Cat had been one of those girls once upon a time, when she was in her early twenties and had taken a waitressing job in Bridgehampton to get away from her mum for a while.

"I'm glad they worked things out," Cat said, raising her glass to the proud parents, who was dressed to fit the theme. "Eric was a real bear at work when they were having problems."

"It was a very smart plan you came up with. I never imagined it would work as well as it did, tricking them into reconciling."

"We just needed to show them the root of the problem. And that you weren't so bad." She linked her arm with mine and leaned into my shoulder. "And I think you needed to see that he wasn't so bad either. You're very alike in many ways."

"But I'm better looking, right?" I said, taking a tiny cupcake with a little green man off a tray the the waiter brought by.

She shot me a wink. "Absolutely."

And then my cupcake was dashed to the ground by a child wielding some sort of large flashlight sword. "I'm think I'm about done then. Shall we take a walk on the beach?"

"Phew. I thought you'd never ask," she said, the relief visible on her face, as she downed the last of her martini. "They won't even miss us. I don't suppose it would be appropriate to have sex with a child's birthday party a few hundred feet away, right?"

Cat shook her head. "Not when the child belongs to our bosses, and I saw a couple of them peering in the window earlier. I thought about it, but it seems like a recipe for disaster."

We snuck back to the guest house, quickly changed into our swimwear and made our way down the short trail to probably one of the least crowded beaches I'd ever seen. Cat quickly explained that it was private, accessible only to the group of mansions that lined the strip. I wasn't sure that sort of thing was allowed, but I had no idea how water frontage worked in the states. Maybe if you were rich enough, you could do whatever you wanted.

I slathered sunscreen on Cat's porcelain skin around her tiny polka dot bikini, taking extra care to cover every inch of it. She pulled a large floppy hat over her beautiful red hair, and a huge pair of sunglasses over her eyes.

"Do you enjoy the beach, Luv?" I asked, smiling at her practically covered body already turning red in the small expanses of skin that were exposed.

"Not particularly," she grinned. "But I'm enjoying the company, and it's nice to know we'll have the whole guest house to ourselves when this fiasco is over."

"You too escaped too, huh?" I looked up and saw Sookie's ex, the philosophy professor that was under contract for a project he'd never delivered smiling down at us, flask in hand.

"Bill, right?"

"And you're Crispin, and Kathy?"

"Cat," Cat corrected. "You're not big on rugrats, either, huh?"

Bill sat down in the sand, letting out a big sigh. "I like my wife's because it makes her happy, and they like me, and I like Max because he's like a tiny adult, but no, I do like children."

"Well join the club then. And pass that flask," Cat grinned at him and took a swig.

"You owe me a book," I said, looking at him, my eyebrows raised. "A philosophy reader, if I'm not mistaken. We paid you an advance."

Bill rubbed the back of his neck with his palm. "Ah, well, I just, it's coming. I just, well..."

I patted him on the back. "I'm just fucking with you mate. But you should email your editor."

"Sookie was my editor when I agreed..." He shook his head. "I'll send you an email next week."

Cat gave me a punch in the arm. "No work talk. So you're at Columbia, Bill?"

"Yes, in philosophy. And you work with Eric."

"I work for Eric." She grinned. "Which isn't as bad as you are probably imagining it."

Bill chuckled. "Eric's not so bad, now. But I've never worked for him."

We sat there for a while, the three of us enjoying the late afternoon sunshine and silence, until a small redheaded kid ran on the beach and made a beeline for Bill.

"Mom is looking for you, Bill. It's time to go." He said, chocolate smeared from one end of his face to the other. "Your kids are probably looking for you too," he said to Cat and I.

"I assure you, they're not," I said, smiling as pleasantly as I could muster. "Good bye Bill. I'll look forward to hearing from you on Tuesday."

"Of course," he nodded at Cat and I. "Have a lovely evening you two."

I was never going to hear from him. I had a stack of contracts a foot tall just like his. I was surprised Sookie had dropped it though. She had a bit of a reputation as a punctuality pitbull when it came to manuscript submission. Maybe she didn't like harping on him. I had no idea what the circumstances of their split had been, but they were quite amicable now. They'd been having lunch one day when I dropped down to get her to sign some things when she was staying here, and I'd been impressed by the maturity of their relationship, which was clearly not inappropriate in any way, but still very friendly.

We continued our silent vigil to the childless, watching a group of windsurfers cruise along in wetsuits. The water was still quite chilly, but it didn't seem to be deterring anyone from enjoying the day.

"Have you heard from Annette lately?" Cat asked curiously, after a middle-aged woman in too much makeup walked by us with a tiny dog.

"No. And you haven't either, I assume?"

She shook her head, a devious smile on her face. "Not since the last time. But I don't expect to hear from her after that."

Cat had threatened to harm her if she kept bothering us. She'd threatened it, and I hadn't doubted that she'd do it for a minute. Annette had pushed her to the end of a very short leash, as she had quite a temper anyway, calling constantly and emailing me, and then Cat when she figured out who I was involved with. Annette wasn't really allowed in the states, after the scene at Christmas, but it was something she could sort out if she was willing to throw enough money at it.

So far, as far as I'd heard anyway, she hadn't been.

"You'd be surprised."

Annette was unstable at best. It had taken me a long time to realize that I had to leave her and move on with my life, no matter how cruel it felt to abandon her after everything she'd been through in her life. The terrible first husband, watching him disintegrate mentally for years. It had all taken its toll on her. I knew I was one of the only bright spots she had, but I couldn't live my life to be someone else's bright spot. That was no way to live.

"I want to see where you're from sometime though," she pouted. "I haven't been the the UK since I was seven and I went with my grandma, and I hardly remember that. I'd love the Bones tour."

"You're just saying that because I don't have any family for you to meet," I teased. If I was being honest, sharing my past, which was beyond shady, made me a bit uncomfortable. She was such an open book, and so innocent, and my life was anything but that.

"I'd meet your family. They can't be any worse than mother, and my absentee father."

That was something we had in common. British absentee fathers.

"Justina's not so bad. I think she's warming up to me."

She pushed up her glasses and narrowed her eyes at me. "She threw you out of her house last weekend."

"But she made me a drink first." I winked at her. Justina hated my guts. I knew it had nothing to do with me personally, even though I did egg her on from time to time. It was my accent.

"Fair enough. But she said you weren't welcome back, so you didn't exactly make any progress. Personally, I'm all for your continued beefing. It means I have to spend less time with her, and have more time for you. And work. But mostly you," she whispered, before kissing me chastely.

"Do you think they've cleared out yet? I guess we should go make a quick appearance before we vanish for the evening."

"I suppose so. I am looking forward to the disappearing though," she whispered into my ear seductively, before pulling her loose black dress over her bikini.

Cat had really come into her own sexually, and very quickly, since we'd become involved. Gone was the nervousness and hesitation that had been so prominent in the beginning, and they were replaced by a trait that I knew played a huge part in her personality.

A genuine thirst for knowledge.

That was seemingly never quenched.

We both breathed a sigh of relief at the drastically reduced number of children on the massive lawn when we returned. Cat and I went our separate ways to socialize briefly before retiring for a bit. We had dinner plans around eight with Pam, who I'd quickly befriended, and Alcide, who was a bit thick but generally well meaning, but terrible at golf.

I found Sookie, who was holding up a very sleepy Cecelia, who was wrapped around her legs looking positively knackered.

"Hello boss."

She greeted me with a put on smile, which was clearly masking exhaustion. "Hi Bones. Did you guys enjoy the party?"

"Oh yes, it was great. The drinks were especially wonderful." I leaned down and smiled at Ceci. She was really an adorable child. Very angelic looking. Looking being the operative term. I'd heard stories of her evil ways from both Sookie and Eric. "Hello gorgeous."

"I had too much cake," she said, looking positively tortured. "Momma, can we go home?"

Sookie sighed. "I'm only Momma when things are particularly bad. We might be back for dinner later if we can convince my stepdaughter to babysit. She's hungover from yesterday, so I have no idea what she'll say. I think they'll be pretty easy tonight though." She ruffled Ceci's hair. "You'll pass right out into a sugar coma, won't you baby."

She looked up and nodded. "Yes, Momma. Home please."

"You men are playing golf tomorrow?"

I'd convinced Eric and Alcide to try golf about a month ago, and we'd been playing quite regularly, even though they were both terrible. Eric was improving, and Alcide just drank more every time we went and enjoyed himself thoroughly.

"I believe so." I patted her back. "Do you say congratulations when you parent a child with a birthday?"

She shook her head. "No, since it's no longer the middle ages, most usually survive to adulthood, so it's not quite the proper sentiment, although sometimes I am impressed that we've managed to keep them alive this long, so I'll take your congratulations."

"We left Max a hundred on the gift table."

"That's very generous. You know it's not like a wedding; he has one of these every year." Sookie smiled and scanned the crowd for Eric, who was talking to Pam and Cat.

"Damn. Maybe we'll have to come every other year or something."

"I'd say they're not usually this grand, but Pam likes planning parties. Expensive parties, with Alcide's money, so they may be. We're going to go though. We'll see you sometime this weekend. I'm glad you've become friendly with Pam." She leaned down and covered Ceci's ears, "She can always use more friends that she's not having sex with, or had sex with in the past. It makes things so complicated."

"Yes, I can't help but notice Amelia isn't here," I said, chuckling.

"Indeed," Sookie replied, a genuine smile creeping across her face. "We'll try and make dinner later. It would be nice to have some adult conversation, and it means we'll get to avoid more wedding planning talk. We got your RSVP the other day. I know you don't know Stel, but it'll be a good, far more adult party. Very casual."

"Hey, any weekend that we get an invite to stay in that gorgeous guesthouse, we'll be here."

"I don't blame you. It's nicer than our place. It's got a hot tub for crying out loud."

We both walked over and found Eric, who was in a similar position with Max wrapped around his legs, also looking exhausted. And dirty. He was covered in green stains, a combination of cupcake icing and grass stains.

"Baby, we have to get these two home," Sookie said, looking up at Eric, the genuine smile remaining, as he wrapped an arm around her waist.

"Yes, we do. Max, go say goodbye to anyone that's left," Eric answered, leaning over to kiss Sookie's forehead and scoop up Ceci.

"And I think we're off for a nap before dinner," Cat said, shooting me a look that went straight to my cock.

Pam didn't miss it, and the perverse smile she got came over her face. "Maybe we'll join you for that nap," she said, visually locating Alcide, who was holding their little girl on his shoulders and speaking to a man that looked absolutely roasting in a suit.

Cat laughed. "Maybe not. We'll see you for dinner though. Eight, right?"

"Yes. Eight in the dining room. Eric, will you two be back?"

"Yes, we'll be back," Sookie answered for them, sliding her hand into his, as he gripped Ceci with the other.

"And we'll bring wine, and take a taxi. I heard the drinks were great, but I didn't get to have any." Eric sighed. "Drinks and the bounce tent didn't seem to go particularly well together, and Gaby didn't want to go alone, but she wanted to go a lot."

"Good party though," Cat said enthusiastically, pinching my ass out of the sight of everyone else.

"Don't think I didn't miss your great escape, Catherine," Eric said, raising an eyebrow. "This will count against your tenure application."

"Sure, Boss," she said, with a wink. "Bones, do you want to go?"

"I sure do, Kitten. We'll see everyone later then?"

They all nodded, and we walked back to the guest house quickly, before we could get ambushed by anyone else. Alcide tried to get my attention at one point, but I quickly waved him off. We ran the last hundred feet or so, and quickly locked the door behind us.

"We made it."

"And we didn't have sex during a kid's birthday party because it's over!" Cat giggled, quickly reaching for my belt.

"Close the blinds, Kitten. There might be some lurkers from earlier."

"We're going to wash the sand off first." she giggled, pulling the string on her bikini top and practically skipping off to the bathroom.

I wriggled out of my clothes as well and followed her in, leaning against the door and exhaling loudly as she dropped to her knees in front of me.

She looked up at me devilishly, the sex kitten unleashed.

"You first," she purred.


	31. Epilogue Part 1

**So this got a bit out of control. There will be a second part to the epilogue, as it sort of took on a life of its own. Sorry about that, or not.**

**Thanks for reading!  
**

* * *

**Sookie**

I sat crosslegged on the bed, smiling as Eric rehearsed his speech for the millionth time.

"You're nervous."

He raised an eyebrow at me and set his notes on his dresser. "For someone that speaks in front of hundreds of people all the time, I'm ridiculously nervous."

I patted the spot next to me. "Come to bed. You've still got a couple of days to perfect it, and I think it's pretty good."

"What can I stand up there and say that's of any value? I've only known her for less than a third of her life. Her other father should be doing this." He paced a bit, looking for about the millionth time at the wedding bands that he'd been entrusted with for Ceci, who was serving as first flower girl and ring bearer, with Gaby trailing behind. Max had opted for the very adult role as usher when given the option.

I shook my head, and stood up behind him, snaking my arms around his waist. "He hardly knows her at all now. He doesn't know Johan, and they hardly speak. And she asked you. You're the one she wants."

"It's not enough that I have to say it. I have to stand up in front of the man that raised her in my absence and pretend that I did my job. To everyone there that doesn't know, they'll just think I'm her dad, and that those eighteen years never happened."

I rested my head on his back, listening to his heart beat through his chest. I wasn't sure what to say about that. It wasn't untrue, and for everyone in Stella's life now, Eric was her dad. He was the one that was paying her tuition, the one who she spent holidays with. The one who was footing the bill for the wedding. They had the same last name, until Saturday, anyway.

But I knew that he still beat himself up over those eighteen years. I don't think it was something he thought of every day, but when our kids reached a milestone, and Stella was around, it was plain as day, the guilt he felt. I'd never forget when Max lost his first tooth and Eric spent a whole day with Stella shopping in the Village.

Eric hated nothing more than shopping. Except maybe the Village.

"Maybe you and Gus can do a speech together."

"What, he can do the first two thirds, and I'll wrap it up?" He shook his head. "I don't think she wants that. I don't even know if people really know what happened, the people she knows now, anyway."

"Who is coming from Sweden?"

"Gus, her siblings, Ingrid's mother. Some of her school friends that needed an excuse to have an American vacation. Johan's people."

"There's nothing you can do about any of it, you know. I know that's kind of a bitchy thing to say, but there isn't. And you've done what you could to make it right when you knew. It's not your fault you didn't know. We could sit here and play what ifs all night. What if you'd been a terrible father at eighteen? What if you and Ingrid had got your shit together and made a go of it..."

"That would never have happened," he said with a chuckle. "We were far, far too far gone by then. Ingrid and I were never right for each other. We just had chemistry, probably because I didn't know what it was like to have chemistry with anyone else then. And you're right, I know you are, but I don't know. This just feels off. I'll feel like I earned it with Ce. I don't with her."

"But you're the one she chose. And you don't know what kind of a father Gus was. He certainly hasn't been much of one to her recently. I'm not sure who is more at fault there, him or her, but they haven't made it work. You and her? You've made it work, and you've had more odds against you."

"I don't like the olive in the kitchen," He said, turning around and pulling me to his chest. "Can we pick another colour?"

"Right now?"

"Tomorrow. Before people come."

I looked up at him, confused. "You want to paint the kitchen?"

"I want us to paint the kitchen. Pam can keep the kids for the afternoon, and it'll be dry by the time this place turns into wedding central on Saturday. I think it would look better in Navy, or maybe a dark beige. The green looks weird with the stainless appliances."

"Why don't you tell me how you really feel?" I said, in mock anger, crossing my arms.

"I did. I think if we'd talked about it, we wouldn't have picked olive. I know you were matching it to the rafters, and not the appliances."

"If you really, really want to pain the kitchen, and you'll feel better if it's a different colour, then fine. We'll do it. But no navy. Beige." I thumbed through my closet and pulled out a trench coat. "This beige. Not too dark."

He examined the fabric, nodding. "Fine. Yes, that will work."

I hung up my housecoat and crawled until the covers. "Now come to bed. I'll make it worth your while."

He glanced at me, and his eyes stopped at my chest, which was fairly on display in the heavily air conditioned room. We were spending a fortune to stay cool this year. More than ever before.

"Oh yea?"

I tugged off my thin tank and smiled at him. "Yea. We can do whatever you want."

"Whatever I want?"

I nodded, enjoying the bit of control that had crept into his voice after the uncertainty it had been laced with for the past day. "Whatever you want."

He tossed his t-shirt in the hamper and sat down on the bed, his expression thoughtful as his eyes travelled over my chest and down to my stomach. "I want to see you. All of you."

I smiled demurely and shoved the blankets down, before hooking my thumbs around my underwear and tossing them in the hamper.

We were good again, him and I. And not in a band-aid over the problem way. In a cut it open and stitch it up kind of way, complete with dissolvable stitches that went away all on their own, leaving a clear expanse of skin with the tiniest hairline scar. One that wouldn't even be noticeable to the untrained eye.

We'd know it was there, of course. We'd put the stitches in.

And when it came to us, we were the most skilled surgeons in the world.

"Hands over your head," he murmured, his eyes scanning my body, pausing briefly at all the key areas. As most women, I imagined, anyway, I spent a lot of time critiquing my body, but when he looked at me, with that hungry expression, I'd never felt sexier. I watched his face and tried to anticipate his next move.

He looked up thoughtfully, before locking eyes with me. "You've got thirty seconds to hide, and then I'm going to come and find you."

I sat up. "What?"

"You're wasting valuable hiding time." He raised his eyebrows. "Go."

A part of me wanted to sit there and argue with him, to make some statement about how childish and silly his game was, but as I sat in the pair of underwear I'd managed to have the sense to tug on in the linen closet in the upstairs bathroom in the pitch dark house, my heart pounding away, I could hardly wait to see what the hell he was going to do when he found me.

Despite the lack of hiding places, it took him about ten minutes to find me, and each time I heard him open a door closer to where I was, my adrenaline picked up a little more and my mind raced, wondering what he had planned when he actually found me.

When he whipped the door open, I screamed, before clamping my hand over my mouth.

And he pulled out his Iphone. "Nine minutes and forty seconds. That's impressive."

My heart still pounding, I crawled out of the closet and stood in front of him, curious about what he was going to do now.

He simply looked at me some more, a grin on his face.

"What now?" I finally asked.

"Sit on the edge of the tub."

I did, and he quickly shoved my panties down and practically dove between my legs.

For exactly nine minutes and forty seconds. I was brought out of my euphoria by a beep on his phone and his skilled tongue's absence from exactly where I wanted it to be.

"Huh?" I choked out, unbracing myself from the tub.

"You better hide better. I'll give you a minute this time." He tossed me my underwear.

"I didn't know what we were..." I gasped, momentarily confused, until I realized that once again the clock was counting down. "Shit."

I slammed the bathroom door behind me, and took off for somewhere I'd once realized I could fit when Lily had braced herself behind there during the fourth of July fireworks. Behind the couch.

This time seemed longer. It wasn't obvious on first glance that I could squeeze back here. To the untrained eye, it looked nearly flush with the wall.

I could hear him walking around, and I honestly couldn't remember the last time I'd been so turned on. I was surprised we'd never thought of this before. We'd been in the Hamptons without the kids tons of times, but we'd never thought of this.

"Sookie? Come out, come out where ever you are," Eric said, in a sing songy voice. "I've got something for you."

I snickered at that, before clamping a hand over my mouth. It was such a cheesy and ridiculous thing to say, that I could hardly help myself, and I giggled as quietly as possible, until I saw his face peering in at me.

"Gotcha," he whispered, moving aside so I could crawl out. "You need to work on that poker face, Northman."

"How long did I last?"

He checked his phone, which was now tucked in his shorts, and one quick glance revealed that he was also enjoying the suspense.

"Fifteen minutes, Lover," he cooed. "I never would have found you back there, but you kind of gave it away."

"You're such a cheeseball, I couldn't help it," I giggled.

He tossed his phone on the coffee table, and nodded at the couch. "Lay down, and leave the panties on."

I kept my eyes on his face and sprawled out. "Okay?"

"Perfect," he replied, before moving on top of me and pushing on of my legs up into my chest as he shoved his shorts down with the other.

I gasped as he shoved the panties aside and filled me deliciously with one thrust.

"Eyes on me, Lover," he said, a commanding playfulness in his voice.

Fifteen minutes was not enough. My mind switched between enjoying the sensation that his slow deep strokes were providing, and trying to figure out where the hell I was going to hide so I could actually get off.

When his phone beep, he let out a groan as he pulled out. "I should have thought this over before I made the rules. Fuck," he whispered. "Go hide again. And please, make it somewhere good."

I adjusted my underwear, practically buzzing, I was so close. "Can't we change the rules?"

He thought about it. "Yea, sure we can. Yea, let's do that. Bed?"

"Yea, then we can just pass out." Even though we didn't have to get up with the kids, since they were at Pam's, my internal alarm clock still went off awfully early.

I nodded, squealing as I ran and he took off after me, pinning me underneath him again.

I slept late the next morning, and woke up to find Eric in a pair of disposable coveralls and a can of paint standing over the bed.

"We have until six. Pam's going to go get the kids fitted for their wedding clothes. I already primed."

"What time is it?"

"Ten. I got the quick drying paint. I figure it won't take more than an hour."

I smiled up at him, amused by the focus in his expression. My husband was certainly focused. "Give me ten minutes and I'll be out."

I cocked my head at the flawless taping job he'd done. He was on this. "Was the green really that bad?" It hadn't turned out exactly how I'd wanted it either. It was more of a pea soup than the olive I'd picked out.

"It just wasn't right for this room."

And then it hit me. I knew exactly why he wanted to paint the room. If he had to look at the green, he'd be forever reminded of the month we'd spent apart, when we hadn't talked about it, and I'd just picked a shade. I contemplated calling him on it for a minute, and talking it out, but I was sure he already knew, and now I got it.

"Alright, let's do this then." I tugged on the disposable coveralls over my sweats.

He was right. It took about an hour, and we were left with a brighter happier kitchen, and both of us stood there with smiles.

"I like it. It really goes with the countertop," he commented, looking for flaws in the the paint job.

I nodded and patted his back. "It's good, and we made good time. It'll be dry by the time the kids get back."

He nodded. "I need to pick up my suit at the dry cleaner for the rehearsal dinner tomorrow. Want to get out of the fumes and take a drive?"

"Sure."

We made an afternoon of it, getting lunch and taking care of a few last minute details for the weekend, including getting my jewellery cleaned.

We leaned on the counter as the tiny old man that ran the shop made his way to the back and vanished with my bag of bling.

"We should get married again," Eric remarked, glancing down at the case of elaborate engagement rings.

I eased my shoulder into his arm. "We don't have to get married again. I think this time has worked out just fine." I smiled as he wrapped his arm around me. "And besides, I think we both know it's the marriage that's important. Not the ceremony."

"I know. I'm just glad we're giving this a real shot."

When I thought back on leaving Bill all those years ago, versus my break from Eric, the differences were as clear as night and day. There was the slow realization that for years, Bill had sought to deprive me of something I'd always wanted, and Eric, well, Eric had given me everything I ever needed for so long, and the sharp absence of that had felt like a knife to the gut. I'd likened it to dying slowly of some disease with no cure to being shot inches from the heart in a drive-by.

The latter left one with choices.

"And I think we're doing well. We feel like us again."

"We do have a distinct feeling, don't we?" He smiled broadly, the lines around his eyes creased with years of smiling, most of which I'd had the privilege of witnessing.

I nodded vigourously. "Like cashmere covered sandpaper."

"You're ridiculous," he grinned. "Do you think it would be weird for me to do my speech in Swedish and English? At least parts of it?"

"She is your Swedish daughter. If you did a speech for one of our kid's weddings in Swedish, it might be a little weird because they wouldn't understand."

"We were really going to teach them Swedish." he shook his head. "Oh well."

"We'll just make sure they get to Ikea as much as possible. Read the Haggar the Horrible comics."

"Chow down on lingonberry and smoked salmon." He smiled at the jeweller as he handed back my cloth Tiffany bag.

We walked out into the beautiful July day and climbed into the car. I slid my rings back on, feeling naked without them even for a few minutes.

"Are you feeling better about your speech?"

He nodded. "I think I'm just going to be very upfront and gracious. I'll say what I should have said years ago."

"What's that?"

He started the car and we headed for home. "Thank you."

Sometimes he just needed a reminder that he wasn't the same boy he was once. "You know, the ultimate measure of a person is their ability to adapt and grow."

"I had a story about Ingrid to tell, but I don't think that seems right, since she was likely sleeping with Gus and I, and it was all such a mess." He shook his head. "There's no way to spin what happened with he and I that makes either of us look very intelligent."

"Maybe that's why Ingrid kept her mouth shut for so long."

"She was protecting herself. Not even Stella. Just herself. My family had money. They would have kicked in if she'd let us know. And I would have got my shit together. Not with Ingrid, mind you, but I would have been there for Stella the best I could have been. I've thought a lot about it over the years."

"What was it? The story?"

He smiled. "It was Midsummer festival in Stockholm, and we didn't go together, but we met up there. I was probably seventeen at the time, and was trying to be very cool, and pretending I didn't care that she was ignoring me, but I did. So after a few beers, my courage was stronger, and I presented her with some flowers I'd picked, and instead of being a bitch like she usually was, she smiled, and we went and sat in the grass together. She was so beautiful to me then, perhaps because I knew she'd never be mine; not really anyway, and that day she was just really sweet and open, not sarcastic like she so often was, and we talked for hours about what we wanted in the future, and she just always want to be a mom. I've thought back on that a lot since then, and probably the only thing that has made me feel okay about what happened all those years ago is that I know that Stella was always really and truly wanted, even if how it all happened wasn't exactly picture perfect."

"I think you could edit that into something presentable."

He shrugged. "Maybe."

"Do you talk about her, with Stella?"

He shook his head. "As little as possible. Even after all these years, it feels wrong somehow with what I did to talk about her the way I remember her."

"You have to give her credit, Ingrid, for seeing the raw potential in you, all those years ago. She must have seen something. I mean, you're good at sex now, but I doubt it was always the case. It couldn't have just been about that." If I had to guess, the two of them probably had great chemistry, but no ability to take it to the next level. Probably because they were both young and foolish then.

"Maybe. I always held her up on a bit of a pedestal too, until you came along and knocked her into next Tuesday."

"I remember you wanted me to meet her." I smiled over at him. "I had to say it, but if we'd met Stella, I would have wondered, just like Pam did."

"I wonder how that meeting would have gone. She probably would have been very cold towards you."

"Maybe. Or maybe she would have been pleased that you were happy."

After picking up lobster and salad fixings for dinner, we made our way home and peeled off the tape, just in time for the kids to burst through the door. We stopped them before they could run through the kitchen.

"Let's go out back and play with Lil," Eric said, both of us breathing a sigh of relief as they made their way through the kitchen without touching the mostly dry, but still tacky paint. "Are you okay to make dinner and I'll entertain them?"

"You just don't like killing the lobsters, do you?" I winked, standing in front of them so the kids wouldn't notice the massacre that was about to take place. They always wanted to play with them, and then it just felt wrong boiling them alive.

"You got me. I'll help you shell them though," he whispered, kissing my forehead before he ushered the kids outside.

It was a nice evening, a break before the wedding chaos descended on us early the next morning with a puffy-faced Stella standing over our bed in a pair of yoga pants and a ratty t-shirt. I opened an eye and shrieked, before quickly making sure we were both adequately covered.

"Gus brought a date. She's one of Mom's friends."

Eric sat up and peered at the clock on the wall. "Jesus, Stel, what time is it?"

"Seven. I thought you'd be up."

I glanced at Eric, "And I thought you'd locked the bedroom door."

"I left it open when I let Lil out at four," he grumbled. "Can you give us five minutes here, Stel? Let us pull some clothes on?"

She nodded, scuffling out. "I'll start coffee."

I pulled the blanket over my head. "So many issues. And you wanted to have another wedding? No thanks."

"I forgot he got in last night and they were all having dinner. It's going to be a long day."

"How did she even get here?"

"Drove? Maybe she slept on the couch? I have no idea."

I watched as he pulled a pair of sweats over his boxer briefs and threw on a t-shirt. "What are you going to say?"

He shrugged. "I have no idea. It's not like I've encountered this before. I guess I'll probably pat her back while she tells me how much she hates Gus, and be happy that it's not me she's hating."

"Good plan. I'm going to run out and get some pain au chocolate for breakfast and some fruit, and then pick up the stuff we ordered for lunch. Johan's people are coming over for lunch, right?" There were so many things to keep straight.

"Yea, his Mom and Step-Dad. His Dad Dad doesn't get in until tonight for the rehearsal dinner."

I was glad we were going out for that. It was a lot of people, when you factored in everyone's extended families. Brunch with the Almans wasn't going to be so bad.

I pulled on my robe, impressed that the kids were still sleeping, and that Stella had, after all these years of visiting, mastered our coffee maker. I smiled at the two of them chatting quietly in the hazy back yard, her head on his shoulder and his arm around her back.

I made a real point of not interfering in their relationship. I'd worked so hard not to be one of those stepmothers, the ones that kids, even though she was far from a kid, disliked. I never wanted to replace her mother, hell, it was physically impossible for me, since there was barely ten years between us.

But I knew, as I had on my wedding day, it was the worst kind of pain, not having your mother around.

I pondered that, wondering if there was anything I could do to make it the tiniest bit easier for her without it appearing that I was trying to fill that hole.

"Momma?" Ce whispered, rubbing her eyes. "Why is Stella here?"

I scooped her up, saying a silent prayer to whatever higher power was out there that I'd be around when Ce's turn came to get married. "She wanted to see her dad."

"My Dad."

"He's both of your dad. You know that." I tickled her a bit. "Do you want to come with me to get some breakfast for everyone? Pain au chocolate?"

Her eyes lit up. "Chocolate for breakfast? Okay."

I sent her off to dress herself, which usually went surprisingly well. I figured I had Pam to thank for that. I pulled on a sundress after a quick shower and poked my head out into the back yard.

"I've got Ce, but Max is still in bed. We'll be back in a bit. You want anything?"

They both glanced up at me, and I knew I was right, from the synchronicity in their movements. I would have seen it the moment I laid eyes on her. She was his daughter through and through.

"I think we're okay," Eric said, a smile on his face. Stella had been crying, her normally flawless skin splotchy and her eyes red. "See you in a bit."

I smiled, at Ce happily chattering away to herself about her sleepover at Pam's and how beautiful she was going to look on Saturday, and how everyone was going to take her pictures and how she was going to get her hair done.

It was kind of adorable.

The Almans were nice. Well, I guess they weren't really the Almans, since his mother had remarried. I didn't ask what they were. They were both blond, and far, far older than Eric, which I think made him feel a little better about being the father of the bride. Stella looked happy to see Johan arrive, and traded Eric's shoulder for his.

When everyone finally vanished four, I looked at our sleepy kids and sighed. It was going to be a long night at this dinner with everyone. "Nap time kiddos," I said, hopeful that we wouldn't get any arguments. "If you want to stay up late."

They whined a little before stomping upstairs and leaving Eric, Stel and I to have a minute of quiet. "Everything good with tonight?"

"Well, besides Gus bringing that whore and my sister having an awful facial piercing, everything's just fine. Johan's parent's hate each other, but I'll hoping that will balance out the dysfunction on my side." She glanced at Eric. "Who would have thought you'd end up being the most functional of them all? I bet Mom is laughing about this somewhere."

And then it happened. She started laughing. Nervously at first, releasing all the pent up feelings that were taking hold of her. And then Eric started.

And then two of them laughed for the better part of an hour, uncontrollably at times. It was infectious, and eventually I was unable to stop myself from joining in, desperately trying all the while to sush them so they wouldn't wake up the kids.

And it was then that I had a thought. I got up and came back to the living room with my jewellery box. "You need something old, new, borrowed and blue."

"Pam gave me all that stuff," she choked, still laughing, "but maybe you have something better."

I smiled, knowing I did, because I had Eric's mom's jewellery. Most of it, anyway. Pam had been interested in a few pieces, mostly the ones with a designer name stamped on them. Which left me with the pieces she bought because she liked them, and the things Eric's dad had had made for her, which, while not the most expensive, were the most interesting. And I knew Stella would take interesting over expensive.

I wasn't sure why I hadn't thought of this earlier. I guess were all so touchy about denying her her other side that we hadn't thought of playing up her being a part of Eric's family, which was clearly where she felt comfortable at this point in her life. "Go nuts. Borrow whatever you want. There's some sapphire earrings in there if you want blue. They'd go with your ring. Actually, if you like them, you should keep them."

Stella fished them out and looked at Eric, surprised. "Really?"

He shrugged, and gave me the most genuine of smiles. "Oh, I'm not much for drop earrings. I prefer studs. They're all yours if Sookie's on board. I didn't even know what was in there."

"Do you have anything of your mom's?" I asked apprehensively, hoping I didn't send anyone into tears.

She nodded. "I have a bracelet of hers. It's just tiny silver links, but I didn't want to ask Gus about bringing stuff and get into all of that."

Eric smiled, glancing at her wrist, where it was tangled up with her watch and a few other bracelets. "I remember that bracelet. I broke the clasp." He picked it up. "Look, there's a staple holding it together."

She flipped her wrist over and examined it. "Huh. I never noticed."

"Your mom was pissed at me," he said, a boyish grin on his face. "So you don't like Gus' girlfriend?"

"You know Elie," Stella said bluntly. "Of course I don't."

The colour drained from Eric's face. "Your dad is seeing Elie? Elie Borg?"

"Well she's been married three times. I have no idea what it is now." Stella crossed her arms. "But yes. I thought you might know her."

Eric was visibly shocked by hearing her name. It was curious. "They were best friends. She's here?"

"It's shocking." Stella raised her chin. "She moved right in for the kill. I don't care if Mom's been dead for eight years. Gus should have been off limits."

In some ways, Stella was a lot like Pam. She didn't give any thought to her father moving on, even after so many years, because she didn't like it. Maybe they found comfort with one another in their grief in a bad situation. I had no idea. But after a few minutes, it became apparent that their discomfort extended past Northman selfishness. Way past.

"Okay guys, what did this Elie do that's so awful. You both look like I killed your kitten."

Eric swallowed. "It's just that, well, she's got a bit of a reputation..."

Stella interjected. "She's like the black widow of Stockholm. Three rich dead husbands, all dead under unusual circumstances. It all happened when I was a kid. Ever three years or so she'd trade up. She was investigated, but nothing ever stuck. What were they, Dad?"

"I think one was electrocuted, one died of an overdose, and the other was..."

And then the colour drained from Stella's face. "Killed by a hit and run."


	32. Epilogue Part 2

**So we've come to the end of the road. I hope you've enjoyed this twisty journey as much as I've enjoyed writing it, and that you'll check out my blog (seastarr08 dot wordpress dot com) for my writing in the future. I think I'm done on FF dot net for a while, but I have some shorts that I'll be posting there. Probably not of the fanfic variety though. I think I've written every story I could possibly write with Eric and Sookie, and I figure it's better to leave on a high note than keep writing until I hate every word I do. I've really enjoyed giving these characters a little more story.**

**Anyway, I hope you'll let me know what you think, even if you're reading once the story is complete. I hope that you all realize what a great source of encouragement your reviews are, not only to me, but to new writers getting started here. I think the validation is a really important part of the process, and one of the really neat things about writing fanfic. Believe me, it's taken a bit of getting used to, not getting the little supportive emails when I finish a chapter of an original story.**

**So I'll end this A/N, which is long for me, with one last thank you, for all your support, not only on this story, but on all the others I've written. I feel so blessed to have such a loyal group of readers. I think I've written over a hundred chapters of these guys, and you've stuck it out for all of them! That's amazing to me! Amazing!**

* * *

**Eric**

I knew Stella was holding back when we talked early in the morning about her mom. She'd been too upset about a father she didn't talk to dating someone else eight years later. Stella was normally very rational.

Elie though. That was something to be upset about. It was a bit of a betrayal, your mother's best friend being involved with your father.

Your non-biological father. That you didn't talk to.

I knew Elie too, but I hadn't seen her since I was maybe twenty two. Before she'd started marrying men thirty years her senior and outliving them.

I really felt for Stella in all of this. I was separated enough from it not to have the emotional reaction to her dad being involved with such an awful person. There was no doubt that she'd played a part in the demise of those husbands. The only thing between her and jail time was a very good lawyer.

And for the ties between the way husband number three and the way Stel's mom died to be so clear too. Yea, that was the kind of thing you drive hours to get some reassurance on. Her showing up this morning made more sense.

And she'd come to me.

I didn't want to feel great about that, since it was such a terrible thing for her to be processing right before such an important day, but I felt like I was going to earn my keep as her father a bit.

"I can't sit there and be nice to her. I did it two nights ago, but it nearly killed me, and this is my day, well, our day. Mine and Johan's," she said, the pain in her eyes evident. She was such a tough cookie, my daughter. I really had no idea how she'd mourned her mother. I felt like this was probably bringing back a lot of memories for her, planning this day and not having her Mom here.

I couldn't even wrap my head around what it would have been like to have Ingrid there.

Sookie and I exchanged a quick look. "We could call it off, but you'd still have to see her at the wedding, and you're not really a call it off girl," Sookie said, with a smile and a shrug.

"I can't call it off. Everyone's going to be there," she slumped in the seat. "You know her, Dad. She's just such an awful person."

"At least your dad isn't wealthy, so she's got nothing to gain on that front," I said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. "So she's probably not going to pull a black widow on your big day."

She smiled at that. "If anything, he's gaining from her on the financial end. Maybe Gus is smarter than I gave him credit for."

I shrugged. "Maybe. And, darling daughter, the beauty of being an adult is that you have your own life, and the goings on of the other people outside your daily bubble really become less and less important."

And, as I looked at Sookie, I knew that that was the most important lesson of all for anyone getting married. Make your family your priority. It had taken me a long time to really and truly understand that, but I got it now.

Sookie looked at Stella. "So just to make sure then, you don't think this black widow whacked your mom or anything, there's nothing like that going on here?"

Stel shook her head and smiled. "No, no. So over dramatic, Sookie. That's not her MO. I just, well, I don't want _her_ to be here. I want..." And then she stopped herself. "I really can't wait for this all to be over so Johan and I can go back to our tiny apartment and just be, you know?"

A look exchanged between Sookie and me, and I knew we both knew what she couldn't say. But there was no response we could give, nothing we could tell her that would make the pain of not having the person who should have been the one constant in her life here. I hadn't been that, Gus hadn't been that.

She should have been here. I really couldn't imagine it though.

"I'll tell her you don't want her there." Sookie said, and I could hear the same protective tone she got with our kids when things didn't go their way at school. "I don't care what she thinks of me."

"You don't have to do that. I don't want to make a scene. I just want to get this over with." She stood up and came back a minute later with a beer.

"Northman family wedding rehearsal?" Sookie grinned, going for the corked bottle of wine we'd started with dinner the night before. "I'll drink to that."

Twenty minutes later, I glanced between them and realized something.

Not only was I the father of the bride, I was also the designated driver.

"Do you think, Stel, maybe you've had enough?" I asked, carefully, as Sookie zipped her into a navy dress that had Pam written all over it. I hoped she'd let Stella pick out her own wedding dress at least. She'd really played a huge part in this wedding. I got the bills for lots of things, but she was covering quite a lot of the incidental costs.

She snorted at me. "I'm fine. More than fine."

Her sense of balance in a pair of not so high heels made me question that. "It's just, tomorrow is a long day. And we still have to get through dinner."

"Eric, the wedding isn't until two. She can sleep until at least nine."

I sighed, looking at the two of them, and knew I was in for a long night. "I'm going to get the kids put together. We need to leave in about twenty minutes."

"And then we'll be one step to having this almost be over," Stella said, a gleam in her eye before she clamped her hand over her mouth. "I guess I shouldn't say that."

"Darlin'," Sookie said, her faded accent making a full blown return, "It'll all be over tomorrow, and then you'll get to be just the two of you."

"I'm so glad you're here, Sookie," Stella said, a slur in her voice that didn't bode well for the rest of the evening, "and I can't wait to just be back in our little apartment, just me and Johan, with all our family gone. Except you guys. You're never really gone."

Sookie laughed. "Having gone through this dog and pony show twice, I certainly know exactly what you mean. And you'll get to do _that_ tomorrow night, and it'll be _amazing_."

Stella wrinkled up her nose. "Ew, Sookie. Your wedding night was with my dad. And it's just another night."

Sookie gave me a knowing grin, and I just shook my head. The drunken loosely veiled innuendo was a little much, even for me. This was going to be an interesting night. "On that note, twenty minutes."

Max was up in his room reading when I poked my head in the door and jumped up as soon as I gave him a time limit, but Ceci was out like a light, her arms wrapped tightly around a sleeping Lily. They really had a love/hate relationship, but most of the time it was all love.

"Baby, we have to go for dinner," I whispered, nudging her a bit until she rolled onto her back, her bangs stuck to her forehead as a result of the warm afternoon sun shining in her window.

She blinked a little, before sitting up and rubbing her eyes with her tiny fists. "Can I wear the blue dress today?"

Her flower girl dress. "Tomorrow Ce. But you can wear another dress today. Whatever you want." I didn't care what she wore to this. "Let's get you dressed."

"And you'll braid my hair," she said, a smile on her face. I'd mastered the braid when Sookie and I were apart. It was never a skill I thought I'd have on my resume, but I was pretty damn good at it. That was one thing that had shifted during our separation. The kids didn't really depend on one of us for things over the other anymore. Either would do.

"Sure. We have to get moving though. Let's pick something out."

We settled on a flashy purple number with a pair of black shiny shoes and Max poked his head as I finished braiding Ce's hair in dressed in a pair of khakis and a polo shirt, which was good enough for me.

Of course, hustling the kids along meant I didn't have much time for me, so I practically threw my silly daughter and sillier wife out of our room while I found something to wear, and they kept drinking.

Dinner was, simply put, hell. I was so pleased that Johan's people were covering it, as was the American tradition, because the food was terrible, and from the amount of booze that seemed to be put away, Stella, Sookie, and I weren't the only ones doing the awkward turtle.

I also realized that I was watching way too many children's television programs.

About halfway through the main course, I really found myself wondering why Gus had bothered to come. I tried to think of it objectively, how hard it must have been finding out that he was a patsy for all those years, in love with a woman that wasn't honest with him for even one day of their marriage, which he thought was pretty damn good.

And then to have everything fall apart from there. Ing's death, finding out that Stella wasn't his daughter, having her leave him and really never look back. Maybe he came out of obligation to her two siblings, who looked rather pleased to be here, or maybe he felt some obligation born out of eighteen years of fatherhood. I wasn't sure, but he was having a hard time even appearing enthusiastic about being here.

And then there was Elie, who looked thrilled to be here. Her and Gus were certainly an odd couple, him in a low quality suit and her in something that Pam would have worn to fashion week. It was red, and very sparkly.

And she had had her eyes done, and a chin implant if I had to guess.

Somehow by the grace of someone, we'd ended up at the opposite side of the table from them, with Johan's family acting as a buffer. His Dad seemed nice, kind of the strong, silent type like him, and his mom was very cordial to Stella. Reserved, but genuinely excited.

Sookie cut herself off eventually, but the two of them, her and Stel, were kind of cute, a little chattier than usual, and I smiled at Stella, who was far more affectionate towards her husband to be than I'd ever seen her.

And then came the somewhat awkward wedding rehearsal part, which involved everyone coming to our place. Everything was being delivered the next day, so we had to fake it a lot, and Gus' leer at me walking Stella down to Johan's dad, who was standing in for the officiant was a little much.

But tonight wasn't the time for overreacting and punching him, even though I really wanted to. Tonight was a night for Stella.

Which quickly evolved into a night of raiding my liquor cabinet for everyone involved. Except for me, since someone had to be the sober one with the kids around.

It was after ten when Sookie tugged at my arm. "Help me put the kids to bed."

I looked around at everyone in the living room, Stella's siblings laughing and smiling with her, and I decided that was reason enough to do this. It was good that they were here.

"Sure, Lover," I said, scooping up a near sleeping Ceci off the couch and giving Max five minutes to say his goodnights.

Ce went easy, and Max was right behind her. I started back downstairs, when Sookie pulled me into the bathroom and kissed me amorously.

"You're drunk," I whispered, when we finally broke. "And I kind of wish no one was here so I could take advantage of you."

"Me too," she whisper-giggled, hopping up on the bathroom counter and pulling me to her. "You're being so nice with Gus, even though he's being an a-hole." She wrinkled up her nose and wrapped her legs around me, pulling me flush with the counter.

"God, you're adorable," I said, kissing her again. "But we should get back to our guests."

She sighed and adjusted the front of her dress, which didn't do much to disguise her cleavage.

"Tease."

She smiled, hopping off the counter and holding herself against me as she stared into my eyes with an intensity that made me want to take her on the bathroom floor. "They're all yours, later. The kids will sleep like the dead tonight."

We were good again. And nothing had ever meant more to me than knowing that.

"If you fall asleep, I'm going to be very disappointed."

"Well then, Dr. Northman, you'll just have to keep me awake," she murmured, slinking out the door, with me behind her.

I glanced down the staircase to see Elie looking around, before finally settling on me, a pleasant smile on her face.

Sookie grabbed my arm and leered up at me, a smirk on her flushed face. "Eric Northman, you didn't sleep with that woman, did you?"

I shook my head. "No."

She snickered. "Why not? She's pretty."

I narrowed my eyes at her, and her attempt to mock my whorish past. "She's not supposed to look like that," I whispered, moving Sookie away from the crowd, since her indoor voice wasn't exactly working. "I can't believe how much work she's had done."

"She's been looking at you all night. I think she wants to talk. Or maybe jump your bones." Sookie waggled her eyebrows at me.

"You're so silly when you're drunk. No one wants me anymore. I'm ancient. I'm going to be a grandfather, well, sometime." That was the next step, wasn't it? I didn't even want to think about that.

"If you're looking for dinner for your ego, it's not coming from me," Sookie giggled. "Let's get these people out of our house so we can fuck."

Yep, we were back to us.

Inevitably, I did get cornered by Elie, about a half hour later.

"Eric, I'm so glad you finally know. It was so hard for Ing, keeping it from everyone from all those years. It caused her a lot of heartache."

"You knew," I said, feeling irrationally angry at her casual delivery of such a life changing line.

"Of course I knew. We were best friends," she glanced at Stella. "And she's a spitting image of your sister."

"And you didn't think to suggest she tell me? Or Gus?"

She shrugged. "What would have been the point of that? It's not like you two were ever going to be together, and she loved him. Even if she enjoyed certain things you had to offer," she winked.

Fucking women and their friends. Elie and Ing had been thick as thieves too. I was sure she knew far more than I was comfortable with.

"Well it seems like it's all worked out. I'm glad you and Gus are happy," I said dryly.

"He's still angry. I think he'll always be angry," she said, nonchalantly. "But we all have parts of our life we think we'd like to change, but when given the option, for real, I doubt many of us would really do things differently. You take the good with the bad, you know?"

I nodded, "Yea, I suppose so."

"Imagine you, saddled with a part time child in your twenties. You never would have been the man you are now. You would have been the angry one." She made a facial movement that looked like raising her eyebrows on muscle relaxants. I guess they kind of were, in a way. "You had your time to be happy and free, they had their time to be happy and a family. I think wherever she is, Ing's probably happy she didn't live to see the fallout when she came clean. She was never one for dramatics."

"So she was really going to come clean?"

She nodded. "When Stel was eighteen, so fairly soon after she was hit. We talked about it at lunch two weeks before she died. I hate to think that maybe she got hit because she was distracted, thinking about how all of you would react. I'm sure it was far worse in her imagination."

"I loved her, you know. In my own way." I wasn't sure why it was important that she know that, but in that moment, it was.

"She knew that, and she knew that someday you'd be a man worthy of your child. I just don't think she expected you to take so long getting there."

I chuckled. "Elie, I wasn't sure I'd get here at all. I'm still surprised to be here sometimes. Happy, but surprised."

She patted my arm. "Well she was sure you'd figure it out. And look at you and Stel now. Thick as thieves. And you with your own beautiful family. She would have loved that."

I thought back to every spat we had, every harsh word said. "She was just so fucking difficult."

"As were you, if you'll recall. A man in bed and a boy in every other way."

I snorted at that, because I knew it was Ingrid verbatim. "My wife would probably still agree with that statement, all these years later."

Her eyes twinkled, although they didn't crease much when she smiled. "She always said you'd make wonderful second husband material."

"Well hopefully I've made someone a good second husband," I said, smiling at Sookie, who was trying to hustle a passing out Stella upstairs into her room.

"She's a pretty girl. And your kids are stunning." She looked past me and over to Gus, who was saying his goodnights to Stella. I was pleased to hear they were cordial at least. "I'm glad to be a part of this day, even if it's not in the way I would have liked. It would have been nice to see you and Ing, trying to be cordial, with all your sexual tension."

"And I'm glad you're making him happy, because he's a really miserable old geezer." I patted her arm. "And I think he's waiting for you."

"Until tomorrow then," She said, gathering up her purse.

"Elie?" I said, a smile on her face.

She looked back and stared at me curiously. "Yes?"

"Don't kill him. Four is too many."

She looked at me deadpan for a long moment, before she flashed me the most genuine smile possible. "He's not worth the trouble. And that's a good thing. Goodnight, Eric."

Sookie linked arms with me, as we shuffled the last of Johan's people out the door. "So only one more night of that."

"Tomorrow, they'll be in a tent, and I'm locking the liquor cabinet."

We stood there, enjoying the quiet for a minute. I could hear Stella in the bathroom running water, Lily snoring on the couch.

"Well, I guess we should get some sleep," Sookie said a few minutes later, the sarcasm in her voice evident. "What did Elie have to say?"

"Not much. She knew the whole time, about Stella."

Sookie snorted. "If she knew you, then of course she did. She looks just like a tall Pam."

"I guess so." I smiled, reaching for the drapey neck on her dress and sneaking a peek. "Shall we?"

She reached down, hooked her thumb in my belt, and pulled me towards the bathroom. "I thought you'd never ask."

The next morning came early, and I managed to avoid a lot of the wedding chaos by taking the kids out for breakfast while everyone primped and while Pam ran around like some sort of crazed fascist bitch, making sure everything was perfect.

I really felt for Gaby, when her time came. It wasn't going to be pretty.

So as Max, Ce, and Gaby and I sat in a plastic booth a McDonald's, enjoying the best of what Ronald had to offer, I thanked my lucky stars that I had at least one child who wouldn't give a shit about his wedding.

"Weddings are stupid," Max said, thoughtfully as he ate his hash brown. "It's a lot of fuss."

"I couldn't have said it better, my boy," I said with a sigh. "One day, and it's all over."

"Good. Then we can get back to summer. I didn't even get to go to the beach this week, except when Pammy made us go and gather sand for the table things. With the candles."

"The centrepieces."

"Yea."

"I'm going to have a bunch of weddings, Daddy. I think they're fun." Ce said, clapping her hands.

"Well, that's all well and good, but I'm only footing the bill for the first one. Remember that." I said, patting her hand.

She scrunched up her face. "What's footing the bill?"

"Paying for. Weddings are expensive."

Max looked at me alarmed. "You didn't have to take money out of our college fund, did you?" He was very concerned about his college fund. He liked to look at the monthly statements.

"No. Your college fund is intact, and I'll still be teaching somewhere when you go, so if you go there, you'll get an even better deal."

He wiped his brow, and laughed as he finished his OJ. "Phew."

"Phew indeed," I winked. Sookie had spent ten years paying off student loans, and as soon as she'd finished that, she'd started putting her monthly loan payment into the kid's fund. I matched it, and Pam usually cut us a check on their birthdays as well. It was actually growing quite quickly. "You have a lot of years before you have to worry about that."

"Dad, I have to get my hair done," Ce said, kicking her foot against the booth impatiently. "And the baby does too."

"I not a baby," Gaby said, punching her cousin in the arm.

And that signalled that it was time to go.

When we got home, I grabbed my tux and Max and hightailed it for his room upstairs, away from the chaos that had engulfed the downstairs. I could hear Pam and Stella arguing in Swedish outside, while her sister looked bored at the kitchen table, twisting her cheek piercing.

Sookie ducked into Max's room about ten minutes later, slamming the door behind her. "Thank God we didn't give Pam the chance to plan our wedding."

"She tried, remember?"

"Right. We put her in charge of the booze at our party. And only the booze."

"She's best with small tasks. That booze was good. What's she doing?"

"The flowers aren't the right shade of blue to match the flower girls dresses. It's going to ruin the whole day. According to Pam. Stella doesn't care."

"Of course she doesn't care. She's sane."

Max watched our back and forth, an amused smile on his face. "We just have to show up, right Dad?"

"I hope so, Max. I don't think Aunt Pam knows we're here."

"She'll be focused on Ce and Gaby now. I think you're safe." Sookie sat down on Max's bed. "And I won't give you away, if you let me hide out for a few minutes."

Max shrugged. "Sure. What's for dinner?"

"We picked the chicken for you. Is that okay?"

"Sure," He nodded. "How much longer?"

"Two hours," Sookie groaned, burying her face in her hands. "I still have to have my hair done and critiqued by Pam. Although the dress she picked out for me is lovely. You'll like it, Eric." She gave me a smirk. "I think you'll like it a lot."

That meant one of two things. It was a boob dress, or a very short leg dress. "Excellent."

"And you boys are going to look so handsome in your tuxes." She ruffled Max's hair. "I'll leave so you can get to it."

I watched, as she took a deep breath and headed back downstairs, into the belly of the wedding beast. She was brave, my wife.

"Max, you and Ce are going to Liz's tonight, so make sure you pack." We were lucky with Liz. She always left just around the time the kids started getting tired, and they adored her almost as much as she adored them.

"Can we go to the beach tomorrow? And not to gather sand?"

I smiled. "Yea, sure. We have to open presents in the morning, well, Stel and Johan have to, but then we're wide open. For the rest of the summer."

"Awesome," He grinned, before gathering his things into one of my old leather messenger bags that he'd commandeered. "I want to play golf with you sometime."

"Next time I go, you can come. Now let's get dressed so Pam can boss us around."

Ten minutes later, we descended the stairs, both of us wincing when we saw Pam at the bottom of the staircase, hands on hips. "No hiding. We have to start pictures now."

We both stuffed our hands in our pockets and kept our mouths shut, as we were shoved in one direction after the other, until finally, it was time.

Stella looked beautiful in a white one-shoulder gown that was elegant and tasteful, and a tiny little veil that was fitted over her face. It was very retro. Pam called it a birdcage or something. "You look gorgeous, Stel," I whispered, kissing her forehead.

"You don't clean up bad yourself," she said with a grin. "And Max looks like your tiny clone."

"Are you ready for this?" I said, linking my arm with hers.

"Ready as I'll ever be," she said, a hint of nerves in her voice.

It was, without a doubt, the fastest wedding I'd ever been to, and not just because things go by so quickly when there's so much hype building up to them. Stella and Johan had literally opted for the shortest vows allowable by law, which were all said and done in five minutes.

It was great, and reminiscent of our city hall wedding. The perfect beginning to a life already in progress.

Dinner was served promptly afterward, followed by dessert and drinks, and finally dancing.

Despite the short vows, Stella had opted to keep some of the traditional parts in, including throwing the bouquet and a dance with her old man.

"Dad, I'm so glad this is over," she whispered, laying her head on my shoulder. "I promise I won't make you a grandpa for a few years."

"And thank you, for that. Good day though, all and all?"

"It was perfect. Exactly what I wanted. But you know, it would have been perfect if it had rained, or if the tent had caught on fire. Because we both showed up, and we did this together."

"I think you've got it all figured out then. Just don't forget that."

"To show up, and do it together?" She smiled. "I think I can remember that."

Sookie cut in for the next song, and for the first time all night, really all day, it was just her and I.

"So I do like the dress," I smiled, glancing down at the coral silk number she was wearing. It fit like a glove. A very sexy glove.

"Pam said that I wasn't allowed to be the ugly stepmother, so she found the hottest dress she could." She glanced down at her rather ample cleavage. "It's a little much, I know, but it's Marc Jacobs. And if I could, I'd marry it and have its little dress babies."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "I'll tear it right off you before I allow that," I growled, wrapping an arm around her waist.

"It has a zipper, silly. No tearing required. And you know what? When we're back in the city, I want to go dancing."

"But of course," I whispered in her ear, as I glanced around, happy that the numbers were starting to diminish. The kids had checked out about twenty minutes earlier, both of them dead on their feet after spending the evening running around with Bill and Selah's kids. "Once the bride and groom make their exit, which I'm guessing will be very soon, let's just go inside and lock the door. I think I've had enough."

"Okay." Sookie peered over my shoulder. "You sure you don't want to bury the hatchet with Gus?"

I shook my head. "I don't think what I did is really a hatchet you bury. Me saying anything on that subject is just going to make him angry."

"So mature you are," Sookie said in her best Yoda voice. "Let's just go. I stashed a bottle of champagne. We can drink it naked in the bathtub while you pull the eight hundred bobby pins in my hair out." She locked eyes with me. "Before we fuck."

So we did just that.


End file.
